Early history The bank was founded on 24 March 1993 as a limited liability company named Consumer-Assisting Commercial Bank Vito, having its head office in
Kyiv. In 2001, the bank became a member of the
SWIFT system and an associated member of the
VISA International. By 2006, the bank had transformed into a full-service bank with a strong presence in the corporate banking sector. Further consolidation of assets between 2009 and 2018 resulted in the establishment of one of the largest private banks in Ukraine, with the second largest retail clients' portfolio behind
PrivatBank. (2013) Following the
March 2014 Russian annexation of
Crimea and armed
Russian-backed separatists seized Ukrainian government buildings and declared the
Donetsk and
Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) as independent states the following month the bank stopped operating in these (according to the
Ukrainian government)
temporally occupied territories in full compliance with
Ukrainian legislation. In 2016 the bank largest shareholder were
Russian businessmen
Mikhail Fridman (32.86%),
Petr Aven (12.4%) and Andrey Kosogov. After in April 2017 Alfa-Bank (officially a Ukraine company) had reiterated that it saw territories of Ukraine as
Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine the shareholders of
Alfa Group (a Russian privately owned investment group officially not linked to Alfa-Bank Ukraine) released a statement in which they stated "that we are out of politics and out of any political assessments.” At the time on the website of the
National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), the beneficiaries of Alfa-Bank Fridman and
German Khan were listed as
citizens of Israel while the fact that they were also
Russian citizens was not mentioned. On 17 March 2020, due to the increased demand for foreign cash and limited supply of currency notes in Ukraine, the bank temporarily suspended the sale of foreign cash in 45 branches. According to the NBU, on December 1, 2021, the bank's assets amounted to ₴111 billion. At the end of 2021, the bank had 201 branches and 686 ATMs (198 of them with NFC). As of July 18, 2022, the bank served over 3 million individual customers, 55,000 companies, and 82,000 sole proprietors; a number of bank employees was almost 5,000.
Rebranding The management board of Bank has resolved to reject the
Alfa-Bank following the February 24,
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine name and continue to operate under a new Sense brand: “A few days after the outbreak of war, the Board decided to dissociate itself from the old brand and establish a new identity. The bank does not want to bear any relation to the aggressor country, even at the level of associations or connections that link to the brand operating in
Russia.” On April 21, 2022, the National Bank of Ukraine approved the appointment of a trustee for one year or until a change in ownership by either sale or transfer of shares to the state property fund, which was made possible with a law on nationalization adopted on May 29, 2023. In April 2022 the bank declared that it had the same Russian owners as in 2016. Under CEO Alla Komisarenko's initiative, Sense Bank has become a part of the joint banking network POWER BANKING. It means that 74 critical branches of Sense Bank will operate even during long-term blackouts caused by (since 10 October 2022)
Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure. All of them are equipped with alternative energy sources and backup communication channels. After the start of the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine millions of hryvnias of Sense Bank's budget
were allocated to the needs of the
Armed Forces of Ukraine and
territorial defense units. destruction of agricultural trading infrastructure, huge damages to productive capacity, including through the loss of electricity, and a reduction in private consumption of more than a third relative to pre-war levels. Blinov stated in February 2023 that "the all-out aggression requires an all-out response" by the
European Union to win the war. The bank, with 3 million depositors, posted a loss of 7 billion
hryvnias ($189.75 million) in 2022, according to the
National Bank of Ukraine. This offer ultimately remained unfulfilled, after the
European Commission and the
Bank of England declined to give legally-binding opinions. In March 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine declared the ABH Financial Limited status "dubious" and instated a temporary ban on the use of its and ABH Ukraine Limited voting rights.
Nationalization Law (2023) On May 29, 2023 Ukraine's parliament (
Verkhovna Rada) adopted a law on the nationalization of Sense Bank. The law stipulates that it is possible to withdraw a systemically important bank from the market in the absence of signs of insolvency - in case of applying blocking sanctions to the owner of a significant participation in it. On June 16, 2023, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky approved this law. In this law is legislation allowing the government to declare insolvent and, if needed, nationalize lenders from owners that came under sanctions due to Russia’s invasion. The following day the bank's holding company ABH Ukraine Limitedthreatened to bring the case to international courts if the nationalization went through. In June 2023 ABH Ukraine Limited asked the Council for State Security to allow the sale of its shares to a licensed European investor. The proposed sale, which requires multiple institutional approvals, is for the symbolic price of one euro and precludes payments to sanctioned shareholders. The investment offer is made through the
Cyprus-based company Karswell Ltd, owner of Polish bank Plus Bank SA. Plus Bank is part of Polish billionaire
Zygmunt Solorz-Żak's holdings.
Final nationalisation of the bank On July 20, 2023 the
National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) withdraw the bank from the market and placed it under temporary administration. The NBU claimed that the connections of Sense Bank's owners with
Russia "pose a significant reputational risk and have a significant negative impact on the bank's activities." On July 21, 2023 the
Shmyhal Government (the
Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine) bought the full share of Sense Bank from the Fund for Guarantee of Individuals' Deposits for 1
hryvnia. It made the bank becomes state-run under the
Ministry of Finance of Ukraine. == Criticism of the nationalization ==