National Bank of Ukraine's net profit falls 58.3% in H1 2025

MOSCOW. Aug 28 (Interfax) - The National Bank of Ukraine's consolidated fell 58.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2025 to UAH 51.2 billion, Ukrainian media said, quoting a report posted on the NBU website.

Profit fell 43.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2025 to UAH 36.4 billion.

Profit fell due to a decrease in operations with financial assets and liabilities in foreign currency and monetary gold to UAH 17.1 billion in H1 2025 against UAH 95.7 billion in H1 2024, including UAH 21.0 billion in Q2 2025 against UAH 49.7 billion.

"Operations with financial instruments totaling UAH 25.6 billion, consisting of recognized interest income on non-resident securities and changes in the fair value of financial instruments and the official exchange rate, influenced profit the most," the NBU said.

But the consolidated profit reflected in the NBU's financial statements is not the portion of profit for distribution, which is transferrable to the state budget. That will be based on the results for 2025 as a whole and published in the spring of 2026. The NBU in April and May this year transferred UAH 84.2 billion to the budget for 2024.

The NBU also said its assets rose 3% to UAH 2.791 trillion during H1 2025, driven by growth for forex-denominated assets, namely a 54% increase in SDR holdings to UAH 71.8 billion and 10% for FX deposits and bullion to UAH 534 billion.

The NBU recalled that the international reserves that it managed in accordance with its mandate increased 3% to $45.1 billion as of the end of H1 2025.

The NBU's liabilities as of the end of H1 2025 totaled UAH 2.171 trillion, which is 1.8% more than at the beginning of the year. The funds of state and other institutions rose 35% to UAH 375.2 billion, but liabilities on loans received from the IMF fell 34% to UAH 34.8 billion.

The local currency funds of budgets and budgetary institutions on NBU accounts amounted to UAH 50.5 billion at end-H1 2025, up from UAH 101.4 billion at the beginning of the year, while FX funds totaled UAH 320.9 billion, up from UAH 171.9 billion.

The NBU's deposit certificate expenses fell 7.6% to UAH 39.9 billion during H1, but rose 6.6% to UAH 21.7 billion in Q2 2025.

"The National Bank's equity grew 9% from UAH 567 billion to UAH 619 billion during H1 2025, due mainly to the accumulation of profits for the current year," the regulator said.

The final portion of profit to be distributed by the NBU and transferrable to the state budget in 2026 will depend on actual macroeconomic indicators in 2025 and will be determined after confirmation by an external audit and approval by the National Bank Council of the annual financial statements of the NBU for 2025.

The report says personnel costs rose 28.8% to UAH 2.28 billion in H1 2025.