Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Kyiv, July 24 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The number of unprofitable banks in Ukraine in the first half of 2009 grew to about 17, whereas over the whole of 2008 there were six banks operating without profit.

Natalia Ruban, the deputy head of the State Tax Administration of Ukraine (STAU), announced the figures at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday.

"The number of unprofitable banks last year was six, and now it is 17. The figure will be refined, [but] I don't think it will drastically change," she said.

She said tax payments by the banks in the first quarter and the first half of 2008 fell compared to similar periods.

"In the first quarter and the first half banks started paying less, however, the amount was not critically less," she added.

As reported with reference to the STAU early in July, in the first quarter the banks posted UAH 539.5 million in losses in their tax declarations, whereas in the first quarter of 2008 they were in the black with profits estimated at UAH 2.852 billion.