March 12, 2024
Press Release
Most respondents, specifically 64%, trust banks. The number has increased compared to 2021, when a total of 56% expressed their confidence in banks. One of the factors contributing to this confidence is the resilience of the banking system demonstrated after the start of the full-scale invasion of Russia. This is evidenced by the findings of a nationwide survey commissioned by the Deposit Guarantee Fund with support from the USAID Investment for Business Resilience Activity in December 2023.
"In the two years of the full-scale war, a number of decisions taken in the banking sector have contributed to strengthening the resilience of the deposit guarantee system and helped retain public confidence in the banking system in general. Despite all the obstacles, the DGF has not stopped the payouts and disbursed approximately UAH 9 billion to depositors of failed banks over the past two years. In addition, bank depositors can now receive their payouts remotely through the Diia app. The survey findings have shown us that we are on the right track, Ukrainians trust banks and the volume of bank savings is growing," said Svitlana Recruit, Managing Director of the Deposit Guarantee Fund.
According to the survey findings, more than half of the respondents, 52%, have awareness of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which is an 18% improvement compared to the 2021 results. At the same time, DGF needs to keep on informing the public about the amount of guaranteed compensation. Due to the introduction of martial law because of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the coverage limit has changed. In April 2022, amendments to the law took effect providing for blanket deposit guarantee during martial law and three months after its termination, followed with the subsequent increase in the maximum guaranteed amount up to UAH 600,000. However, only 20% of respondents correctly stated the coverage limit for the period of martial law, which is lower than in 2021, when 44% demonstrated their awareness of the compensation amount.
The sources of information about financial and banking services that Ukrainians trust the most include Internet resources and information received directly from banks. Compared to 2021, the share of financial consumers who trust information provided by banks has increased from 21% to 26%.
Andriy Olenchik, Deputy Managing Director, the Deposit Guarantee Fund, emphasized, “Based on the survey findings, we have identified raising awareness of the deposit guarantee system as one of the key objectives for the DGF. Using questions about the coverage limit as an example, we can see that as the conditions have changed, awareness has decreased. Therefore, together with banks we must encourage consumers to deepen their knowledge of the financial sector. The way to do this is to provide quality information and develop financial literacy initiatives.”
The survey findings are available on the websites of the DGF and the USAID Investment for Business Resilience Activity http://www.ibr-ua.info/en/category/financial-wellbeing/