ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯ ВПЛИВУ ПАНДЕМІЧНОЇ КРИЗИ COVID-19 НА ДІЯЛЬНІСТЬ УКРАЇНСЬКИХ БАНКІВ

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis impact has become an integral part of changes in the economy in general and businesses entities’ activities in particular. Banks are no exception. The article examines the impact of the pandemic crisis on the dynamics of Ukrainian banks’ indices. Maintaining stable banks’ activity during the crisis is a necessary condition for financial stability in the country. The results of the analysis of the scientific literature showed that the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has a statistically significant negative impact on the credit risk of the banking sector, profitability, and solvency of banks. Banks have enough funds to support a sustainable economy but do not want to take credit risk. The study results also showed a reduction in lending to the economy, despite a set of measures to stimulate lending implemented by the state. The analysis of theoretical approaches to identifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on the activities of Ukrainian banks has shown that there is no single understanding and interpretation of such impact in the scientific literature. It is recommended to distinguish between the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic crisis on the banks’ activities. The study results made it possible to identify the negative impact of COVID-19 on the activities of Ukrainian banks in terms of efficiency indicators and the positive impact – in terms of capitalization and business organization. The main advantage for banks was their need as participants in the financial market, which led to the rapid development of tools for remote customer service and digitalization of individual business processes. Given the virtually unchanged number of banks operating in Ukraine during 2020–2021, COVID-19 was not the reason for their refusal to work and exit the market. Maintaining the positive dynamics of most performance indicators by Ukrainian banks became possible due to the significant financial strength formed in the pre-crisis year. Given the low inflation and a significant reduction in interest rates on loans, the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly negatively impact Ukrainian banks. Banks, in general, have proved to be quite resilient to this crisis.