The National Bank of Ukraine published its Non-Bank Financial Sector Review covering Q4 2024, reporting a 6.8% quarter-on-quarter rise in combined assets across non-bank financial service providers. Growth was driven by finance companies (+7.7%), insurers (+3.8%) and pawnshops (+2.2%), while credit unions’ assets declined and the share of NBU-supervised non-bank financial institutions in total financial sector assets fell to 10.2%. In insurance, life insurers’ assets rose 5% in Q4 and 14% in 2024, while non-life insurers’ assets increased 3% and 11% respectively. Market concentration increased, with the ten largest non-life insurers accounting for 71% of premiums (up from 65%) and the largest life insurer holding almost 50% of life premiums. Non-life premiums rose 1% qoq in Q4 and 15% yoy, while life premiums grew 17% qoq and 5% yoy; 2024 net profit was UAH 2.5 billion for non-life insurers (up 31%, return on equity 14%) and UAH 1.4 billion for life insurers (more than double year-on-year, driven by a gain at a large insurer). All insurers met the solvency capital requirement and minimum capital requirement at end-2024, though three had solvency capital requirement ratios in the 100%–120% range. Credit unions’ assets fell 5% in 2024, their loan portfolio declined 4% qoq and 8% yoy in Q4, and losses linked to credit risk and higher provisioning reduced profitability; three credit unions were breaching the capital adequacy ratio as of early 2025. Finance companies’ assets were up nearly 25% yoy, with retail loan volumes down 5.5% qoq and business lending down by more than a quarter, while leasing rose 15% qoq (45% yoy) and factoring increased (conventional receivables factoring was about a quarter of operations); around 86% of finance companies were profitable in 2024, with almost half of segment profit attributable to Ukrfinzhytlo PrJSC. Pawnshops saw new lending decline qoq but almost double yoy and remained profitable in 2024. Looking ahead, the review notes that finance companies must establish comprehensive internal control systems starting in 2025, and that a new indicator system for consolidated and sub-consolidated reporting by non-bank financial groups has applied since 1 January 2025. Amendments to the Reporting Rules also require finance companies and pawnshops to move from quarterly to monthly reporting starting with the July reporting period, and the next review (covering Q1 2025) is scheduled for May 2025.

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