Ukraine's IBOX BANK Records Significant Growth, Commits to Opening New Branches

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A strong 2023 performance takes Ukraine's IBOX BANK into the Top 20 financial institutions in the country, despite the challenges posed to businesses and the domestic financial system by Russia's ongoing invasion of the country.

According to the Ukrainian edition of Forbes, IBOX not only delivered stable results at the end of the hardest year in the modern history of Ukraine but grew by a factor of 2.5 times.

2022 saw IBOX BANK open more than 30 new branches in different areas of the country.

According to the National Bank of Ukraine, IBOX BANK ranks eighth in the rating of the most profitable banks in Ukraine for the first 11 months of 2022.

On February 28, 2022, just four days following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, shareholders of IBOX BANK increased the authorized capital of the bank by UAH 0.5 billion, thus capitalizing the entire income for 2021.

The decision allowed IBOX BANK to expand at a time Ukraine's banking sector came under significant pressure; the industry saw profits decrease by a factor of seven during 2021 as fears of a full-scale Russian invasion rose.

Nevertheless, the country's banking system remains stable with only two financial institutions exiting the market in 2022.

IBOX BANK decided to use the crisis caused by the war as an opportunity and commenced with digitalization and transformation of business processes.

During her speech at the largest FinTech Ukraine conference in Ukraine, Alona Shevtsova - shareholder and the chairman of the Supervisory Board of IBOX - noted that now there are only two ways for Ukraine and Ukrainian business: To have all or nothing.

"We had to stand up and overcome all the obstacles. And we did it. And we can still steadfastly and boldly stand on our feet. In addition, we are a technological country, so, we are capable of developing technologies, which shall be no worse than one of the advanced countries from all around the world. In addition, such things as IT, innovation, and digitalization, should be integral parts of every business that wants to maintain the status of the leader. For us, this is both a goal and a driving force," she said.

IBOX BANK continued the process of the total digitalization of business through 2023.

The decision allowed the bank to become the largest transactional bank in Ukraine in 2020.

By the end of 2021, the bank managed to show a fivefold increase in revenue.

"We are fighting for the country, for the future, like everyone else but on our own front. After making donations in the amount of more than 70 million for the Armed Forces, we constantly implement a huge number of social projects throughout Ukraine. We are able to do this because we fulfilled the key task of the first days of the war: We retained the team, which is the key to our stability and growth. This allowed us to show almost the same level of profits during the first year of the war as in 2021. We have found new friends, allies, and customers. The country was united by a common issue, and this is already a fact. We have become stronger. I am sure that we will restore the economy, and the stable state of the banking sector is proof of that," says Shevtsova.

A wide range of innovative banking products for Ukrainian users has become an integral part of their lives.

Services such as transferring funds from card to card, as well as integrating Google Pay and Apple Pay are examples of such innovations.

Last year, IBOX BANK opened 33 new branches throughout Ukraine and in 2023, they plan to open eight more offices.