CLEANSING OF THE UKRAINIAN BANKING SYSTEM IN THE LIGHT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Abstract

Abstract. The cleansing of the Ukrainian banking system, performed in 2014—2016, showed the purpose of the National Bank to break the old models of banking and ensure sustainable development of the banking system and Ukraine as a whole. At the same time, the cleansing of the banking system was revolutionary, affecting not only the owners but also the broad sectors of society and the business entities, who suffered losses. Due to high relevance and social impact, discussions about the root causes, methods, and consequences arose. This article aims to establish the compliance of cleansing the banking system of Ukraine with the goals of sustainable development. In this study, we considered the provisions of economic theory and the theory of banking systems, taking into account the spirit, ideals and principles of sustainable development. This study has the structure as follows. Firstly, we performed a theoretical analysis of the evolutionary and revolutionary types of banking reforms. Then we conducted a historical-economic analysis of the events that preceded the beginning of the cleansing of the banking system. In the central part, we analyzed the generalized causes and specific problems that led to the withdrawal of banks from the market in the primary wave of cleansing. Finally, we singled out three groups of NBU’s comments on the liquidation of specific banks. We established their close connection with the implementation of task 8.3 of the eighth Sustainable Development Goal. We pointed out some discrepancies between the reasons for the liquidation of individual banks and the comments of the NBU. Therefore, we have suggested combining comments into groups which more clearly reflect liquidation reason. Such groups include non-compliance with stakeholders, lack of bank recovery strategy and resources, and misbehaviour by shareholders, insiders, and related parties. Finally, we reaffirmed the revolutionary nature of the reform. We proved that, despite the losses, its absence, in the longrun, could have made it impossible to meet Task 8.3 of the Eighth Sustainable Development Goal. Promising are as of further research are comparing the procedure and results of cleansing the banking system in Ukraine and foreign countries. Keywords: banking system, cleansing, liquidation, banking reform, sustainable development. JEL Classification Q01, G21 Formulas: 0; fig.: 0, tabl.: 0, bibl.: 28.