Birth: 1967Nationality: BelarusJob: CEO of Universal BankHow to succeed in Ukraine: "Find a strong local team which will be able to support and deliver knowledge, local expertise in order to protect their business, plus take into consideration many aspects and be able to predict the future here… to be on time, find and rely on the proper management with the very deep knowledge of the situation… Any technological decision, models - nothing helps, if you don't understand the environment, the point of authorities, the behavior of borrowers and customers… If there is a gap in the understanding, it will lead to some additional risk."
Editor’s Note: In 2015, the Kyiv Post will offer more coverage of the leaders who run Ukraine’s biggest and best companies in the CEO Watch feature.
Igor Volokh, Universal Bank’s CEO, says foreign investors are still keenly watching Ukraine’s potential. For foreign banks, with support from the parent company, Ukraine’s crisis is not as big of a burden as it is to local banks who are on their own.
“I don’t like boring things. What Ukraine is able to guarantee is that life is not boring and never will be,” Volokh admits. Having worked for Raiffeisen Bank Aval, one of the largest in Ukraine, he joined Universal Bank, now country’s 30th biggest one, in 2006.
He remains positive, even though his bank’s net loss for 2014 reached $29 million after having $550,000 net profit in 2013.
Universal Bank is part of a bigger chain whose parent holding is called Eurobank Group, with headquarters in Greece, a presence in eight countries and $84 billion in assets. Out of 17,500 of its employees, more than 1,000 live and work in Ukraine, a home to the bank’s 50 branches, most of them in Kyiv. Ones in Donetsk in Luhansk are put on hold.
Its management focuses on balancing its products not to depend solely on one service. Volokh is certain that Universal Bank will never stop operating regardless of the market’s development. “The country is big and this is one of the few advantages,” says CEO.
Russia’s ongoing war in the Donbas is the absolute negative for foreign investors, but being close to the bottom also means that there are many opportunities, says Volokh. Though investors are not making official decisions, they are carefully following the political situation hoping to see a transformation in the banking standards and the rest of the economy.
“They are very cautious, they do nothing from an investment side right now, but they are here, they are analyzing the situation, and they are looking for the opportunities.” If the war comes to an end and the government succeeds in conducting the reforms – the first signs of foreign investment will soon show up.
The Belarusian expatriate wants to see more in the Ukrainian customer. Compared to Europeans, Ukrainians need to catch up with their financial knowledge. For example, European children learn from their parents how to repay loans. The Ukrainian customer did some progress, but through very painful lessons.
On the positive side, Volokh sees significant progress in the National Bank, an industry regulator. It is optimizing its structure laying off more than half of the employees and concentrating them in four regional centers rather than in all the oblast centers where they would sometimes lack functions.
This leads to easier cooperation, better standards and more openness. “There are obvious signs that the transformation has started, and I don’t believe that the process will be stopped.”
In his spare time Volokh enjoys history books about various countries. He drives his black E-class Mercedez Benz, since he lives in the suburbs of Kyiv. While on the road, he might listen to Soviet-era rock bands such as Voskreseniye and Mashyna Vremeni. A happy husband, Universal Bank CEO has two daughters, both studying in Ukraine. “They like this country as well, by the way.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Ilya Timtchenko can be reached at [email protected].
