Bank and non-bank financial institution leaders have improved their assessments of the financial sector's resilience to significant negative events for the third consecutive survey, according to the results of the "Survey on Systemic Risks in the Financial Sector" for November 2024, as reported on the website of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the results obtained, 97% of respondents rated the resilience to shocks as average or above, and the overall balance of responses has remained at the highest level for three consecutive semesters since the survey began in 2018.
More than half of the respondents do not expect any changes in the financial sector over the next six months, while the proportion of those anticipating a deterioration has increased from 18% in the previous survey to 27%. Conversely, the share of financiers with optimistic expectations has decreased from 18% in May to 12% in November.
At the same time, over half of the respondents reported that the state of Ukraine's financial sector has not changed in the past six months, while more than a quarter of them indicated that it has improved.
The percentage of top managers considering the current state of the financial sector to be satisfactory or good has dropped to 90% in November from 94% in the May survey.
The proportion of respondents who viewed the level of risk in the financial sector as high or very high remained at 41%. Meanwhile, in November, a larger number of respondents assessed its level as low: 12% compared to 6% in May of this year, while the share of financial sector top managers who rate it as average decreased from 53% to 47%.
Respondents continue to identify the war with Russia as the primary source of risks in the financial sector. Other significant risks include the overall level of corruption in the country, the activities of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary, the quality of legislation and the tax system, as well as the quality of human capital in the financial sector.
However, according to the survey results, the level of risk from fraud and cyber threats has significantly decreased – from 29% in May to 15%.
Nearly 70% of respondents reported that the risk appetite of financial institutions has not changed over the past six months, while a quarter of those surveyed indicated an increase in risk appetite.