TRENDS IN BANK LENDING IN UKRAINE

A study has been carried out on the credit environment of the banks, which constrains and stimulates their credit activity, is the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the monetary policy of the regulator (interest rate level, changes in the assessment of the creditworthiness of borrowers). Trends in lending to the banking system of Ukraine, in particular the dynamics of credit operations by categories of borrowers have been analysed. The reasons for the negative trends in bank lending have been identified. Ten banks with the largest share of non-performing loans have been identified, as well as six banks with the largest share of non-performing loans as of 01.08.2020. It has been shown that 75 per cent of non-performing loans belong to four systemically important banks, the lack of adequate functioning of which may increase the systemic risks of the banking system. It was suggested that the regulator should tighten the quality requirements of the loan portfolio of systemically important banks and encourage them to write off, sell and restructure non-performing loans more actively from their balance sheets. Key words: