France’s Credit Agricole has the “desire to expand its activities in Ukraine, National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) First Deputy Governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk said in an interview with Ekonomichna Pravda.
Nikolaychuk said the French banking group has shown interest in strengthening its operations in the Ukrainian market, which regulators say continues to attract foreign investors despite the ongoing war.
“We see a desire from France’s Credit Agricole to expand its activities in Ukraine,” Nikolaychuk said in the interview.
Credit Agricole is considering acquiring Bank Lviv, owned by Icelandic investor Margeir Petursson and several European institutional shareholders, with most of its operations concentrated in western Ukraine.
“We also see concrete interest in state banks,” he added. “First of all in Ukrgazbank and Sense Bank, which are currently in the pilot phase of state bank privatization.”
The comments come as Ukraine prepares to privatize two state-owned lenders – Sense Bank and Ukrgazbank – part of a broader effort to reduce the state’s dominance in the banking sector. Previously, Estonia’s Iute Group purchased Ukraine’s RWB bank, turning it into Iute Bank.
Nikolaychuk said that the signal from the deal differs from the previous wave of foreign bank expansion in 2005-2008, when international lenders entered Ukraine, bringing their own technologies and corporate governance systems. This time, he said, the Estonian investor came to Ukraine specifically for the technological expertise already developed within the country’s banking sector.
“It is worth paying attention to the message with which the owners of this group entered Ukraine. If we recall the first wave of foreign expansion in the banking sector in 2005-2008, the main message then was that foreign banks were entering with technologies, systems for building corporate governance and risk management. Now there was a very clear signal that the fintech company is entering not with its own technologies, but with the technologies that already exist in the Ukrainian banking sector,” Nikolaychuk said.
However, Nikolaychuk cautioned that it is still too early to discuss specific commitments from investors.
“It is still too early to comment,” he said. “The ball is on the government’s side and the Finance Ministry, which must appoint advisers for the privatization. After that, the process could move faster.”
Bank Lviv, founded in 1990, is a regional lender focused primarily on small and medium-sized businesses. According to Forbes Ukraine, the shareholders began exploring options to sell the bank in early 2025 amid discussions with potential buyers, including the Ukrainian subsidiary of France’s Credit Agricole, though no official requests have yet been submitted to regulators.
Estonian investors previously bought RWS Bank in Ukraine
According to Nikolaychuk, the Ukrainian banking sector remains attractive to international investors, citing recent market activity.
In January, Estonia’s financial technology group Iute Group acquired Iute Bank – a bridge bank created from the assets of the failed RWS Bank – marking one of the few foreign entries into Ukraine’s banking market since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The deal followed the National Bank’s declaration of RWS Bank as insolvent in November 2025 and its subsequent resolution through the Deposit Guarantee Fund’s bridge-bank mechanism.
Privatization push targets state banking dominance
Ukraine currently operates several state-owned banks, including PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Ukreximbank, Ukrgazbank, and Sense Bank.
The sector’s 50% state footprint distorts competition, although government lenders have also played a key role during wartime by providing stability for deposits and lending.
Kyiv has signaled plans to reduce that footprint through privatization, starting with Sense Bank and Ukrgazbank.
Ukrgazbank CEO Rodion Morozov previously told Kyiv Post the lender is among the most prepared for privatization, citing its operational efficiency and compliance with capital requirements. He said the bank’s strategy focuses on efficiency rather than rapid expansion, with priority sectors including renewable energy and agriculture.
International institutions are already involved in Ukrgazbank’s capital structure. In 2021, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) provided the bank with a €30 million ($30 million) loan convertible into an up to a 20% equity stake, although the option has not yet been exercised.