Privatbank

The only shareholder that owns 100% of the bank is the state represented by the Cabinet of Ministers.

Since January 2018, the head of the board is Petr Krumphanzl, a Czech mathematician and banker.

Deputy Heads of the Board:

• Galina Pakhachuk, Deputy for Distressed Assets Management.
• Anna Samarina, Deputy for Finance.

Since July 2019, the bank's supervisory board has been chaired by an American woman, Sharon Easky. She was an international advisor to the US Treasury's Technical Assistance Office and an expert advisor to the IMF.

• According to a study by GFK Ukraine, in the first quarter of 2020, there were 61.7% of Ukrainians — individuals over 16 years old — who collaborated with the bank.
• 49.2% of Ukrainians consider Privatbank to be the main bank for banking services. This is more than 20 banks following Privatbank altogether.
• Among corporate clients, 63.7% of legal entities cooperate with the bank and 42.2% name Privatbank as their main bank.
• The bank has 20,048 ATMs and self-service terminals. There are 1978 bank outlets.
• As of June 2020, there are 29.8 million active bank cards, 27.4 million individual customers and 10.2 million are Privat24 users. There are 199,600 POS terminals.
• Net profit for 2019 is UAH 20 billion. For the first quarter of 2020, it is UAH 10.4 billion.

• Founded on March 19, 1992, by businessmen from Dnipropetrovsk (now: Dnipro) by Ihor Kolomoisky, Hennadiy Boholyubov, Oleksiy Martynov, and Leonid Miloslavsky.

According to the media, it was a former Komsomol member Serhiy Tihipko who offered Leonid Miloslavsky, the son of an influential official in Dnipropetrovsk, to create a bank.

Three partners who at that time were selling chocolate bars, appliances, and metals, liked the idea. Only Kolomoisky opposed. He didn't see the reason why one may need a bank if you can use the services of those that already exist. Later, he changed his mind and got behind the idea.

Officially, the founders were four companies Vist Ltd, Sentosa Ltd, Solm Ltd, and Privat-Intertrading CJSC.

Tihipko became the first chairman of the board of Privatbank. It was also him who named the bank. The first team of the bank included people close to Tihipko in the Komsomol.

• In 1995, there were 188 branches opened. The owners of the shares (16.7% each) at that time were Kolomoisky, Boholyubov, Martynov, Leonid Miloslavsky, and Leonid Gadyatsky, the Pavlo Lazarenko's driver.

According to rumors, the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region Pavlo Lazarenko forced the bankers to rewrite a share in the business to his man. Serhiy Tihipko had 16.6% of the shares.

• In 1996, Privatbank became the first Ukrainian member of the international payment system VISA International.
• In 1997, Tihipko left Privatbank and started working in the government as Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko asked him to be Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Reform.

The bank was headed by Tihipko's deputy Oleksandr Dubilet who was working in Privatbank since 1992. Oleksandr Dubilet is the father of Dmytro Dubilet, former minister of the Cabinet of Ministers Oleksiy Honcharuk (August 2019 — March 2020).

• From 1999 up to the present day, there is a bank's department in Nicosia, Cyprus. This is the first Ukrainian bank's department to open abroad.
• 2001 — the bank launched the Privat24 system.
• 2007 — the net profit amounted to UAH 1 billion.
• In 2011, the bank's shareholders changed. Kolomoisky and Boholyubov each had 45% of the shares, and Olexandr Dubilet owned another 3%.
• In 2014-2016, as a result of the banking crisis, 90 banks were declared insolvent. The NBU also revealed financial issues for Privatbank. The shortage of capital funds amounted to UAH 148 billion which was caused by loans provided to companies associated with the owner of Privatbank.

The liquidation of one of the country's largest banks could hit the country's economy way too hard. Therefore, the National Bank proposed to the board of Privat a plan for restructuring insider loans. However, the bank's shareholders did not fulfill the plan.

• On December 18, 2016, the NBU declared the bank insolvent and within 72 hours the bank was completely transferred to the state.

Individual Deposit Guarantee Fund introduced a temporary top-management and sold all 100% of the shares to the Ministry of Finance for UAH 1.

This way, the former head of the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Finance Oleksandr Shlapak became the head of the board. The government spent more than UAH 155.3 billion on saving the bank.

• Brothers Ihor and Hryhoriy Surkis — according to the NBU's decision in 2016, they were recognized as insiders of Privatbank. Ihor Surkis and Kolomoisky are shareholders of the 1 + 1 TV channel and that makes the Surkis brothers associates with Privatbank.

In Ukrainian courts, the brothers are trying to cancel the decision and prove they are not associated with the bank. Meanwhile, in London, they are trying to prove the opposite — that they are doing a joint business with Kolomoisky.

Ihor Surkis had UAH 151 million in Privatbank and Hryhoriy Surkis had UAH 163.1 million. Hryhoriy's wife Polina Kovalik had UAH 514.1 million, Ihor's daughter Marina Surkis — UAH 174.5 million. The father of the Surkis brothers, Rakhmil Davydovich, had UAH 44.8 million.

• On February 25, 2020, the Pechersk District Court ordered the bank to pay deposits (more than $200 million) to offshore companies belonged the Surkis brothers.
• On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court supported Privatbank in the case of Surkisov deposits.

• In 2014, the NBU allocated UAH 19 billion to refinance Privatbank. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the bank issued the assets as loans to 42 firms controlled by Privat. The firms later transferred the money to six offshore companies.

In November 2014, the GPU opened criminal proceedings under the article "Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of office."

• On March 2, 2017, NABU detectives opened one more criminal proceedings due to the fact that during 2016, Privatbank officials transferred debt from 193 "old" firms to 36 "new" companies.
• In May 2017, Schemes conducted an investigation based on the results of an analysis of the bank's financial and economic activities carried out by the auditing firm Ernst & Young.

• In June 2017, it became known that Ihor Kolomoisky tried to challenge the Privatbank's nationalization.

'In the statement of claim, Mr. Kolomoisky wrote about raiding by the state,' First Deputy Governor of the NBU Kateryna Rozhkova told Finbalance. Back then, the Ministry of Finance published a letter from Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholyubov, dated December 16, 2016. The shareholders asked Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman to purchase the bank's shares and make a positive decision on its further capitalization.

• In July 2017, Ihor Kolomoisky and associated companies and individuals filed 90 lawsuits in court in connection with the Privatbank's nationalization.

Privatbank lawyers have also filed lawsuits against the former shareholders in the courts of several countries.

This way, in the Delaware Court of Chancery, there is a statement of claim of over $600 million, in The High Court of Justice in London, there is a claim to recover $3 billion from Kolomoisky, and another claim for 2 billion shekels (about 515 million euros) is being considered in Israel.

• In January 2018, the international detective agency Kroll found that the bank's former shareholders had used Privatbank for ten years for fraudulent purposes that led to a bank loss of $5.5 billion.
• In April 2018 speaking in the Rada, the head of NABU Artem Sytnik noted that the damage established in the production of the anti-corruption bureau was estimated more than UAH 150 billion.

• NBU detectives are still investigating the case. In April 2020, former Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said that the investigation was being hampered by the Security Service of Ukraine.
• Kolomoisky's attempts to cancel nationalization do not stop and the process in Ukrainian and international courts keeps going.

Privatbank is one of the most innovative banks in the world. More than ten years ago, it became one of the first in the world to use one-time SMS passwords.

Among the latest innovations that have received recognition around the world, there are products such as a mini payment terminal, access to the Internet bank via a QR code, online cash collection, as well as dozens of different mobile apps.