Dropping Like Flies: 46 Ukrainian Banks Go Bankrupt in Course of One Year

The Deposit Insurance Fund of Ukraine will not be able to repay people their losses and will have to rely on the external funding from the EU and, in particular, European taxpayers.

Forty-six banks went bankrupt in Ukraine over the course of one year, Managing Director of the Ukrainian Deposit Insurance Fund Konstantin Woruschilin told the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.

He explained that there are several reasons for the mass bankruptcy of Ukrainian finance institutions. First of all, it is “the immoral behavior of bank managers”. According to Woruschilin, bank employees had been stealing the money and used it for their own purposes.

The second reason is the drop in exports, the consumption decline as well as high production costs, Woruschilin said.

The Deposit Insurance Fund makes every effort to repay Ukrainians their losses. However, the financial resources of the fund are insufficient, reaching a total of 16.1 billion dollars as of April 1.

In order to meet its obligations to the banks’ customers, the fund will have to rely on external funding. According to the German magazine “Deutsche Wirtschafts Machrichten”, the main burden will ultimately fall on the EU taxpayers who will have to pay for the mismanagement in the Ukrainian banking sector.