The role of banks in implementing Ukraine’s investment strategy

The post-war recovery of Ukraine will depend on the content of the investment strategy, an essential condition for the implementation of which is the active involvement of banks in these processes. As an important element of the economic system, the banking system has a significant impact on the processes of reproduction and growth, providing credit to the real sector of the economy. Investment lending is one of banks’ most important functions; however, even before the war, the banking system did not have sufficient financial resources for this. The ability of banks to direct resources to investments depends on the action of many factors and requires an appropriate level of development stability. The process of banks attracting financial resources is complex, as is their further use. Investments are not a priority for banks, but they are of strategic importance for the development of the economy. The authors consider the banking system’s stability as their ability to form and effectively use financial resources, and from the standpoint of the post-war recovery of Ukraine, the stability of banks acquires special importance as a condition for the implementation of the investment strategy. In the course of analyzing the impact of banks on the investment strategy, indicators that characterize investment processes were investigated, in particular the amount of investment, the share of investment in GDP; indicators that reveal trends in the development of the banking system (number of banks, size of their assets, size of loans and structure of the loan portfolio). The war significantly affected both the activities of banks and investment processes. The level of investment activity in Ukraine was and remains low, but it critically does not meet the needs of recovery and economic growth. The number of banks decreased during the war years, the loan portfolio decreased, and the resource base decreased, but in general, the banking system ensured the stabilization of macroeconomic processes. Thus, in Ukraine, the banking system has a low level of involvement in investment financing. Changing the situation depends on increasing the level of stability of the banking system and a clear justification of the content of the investment strategy. Among the priority areas for implementing the investment strategy, which will depend on the state of the banking system, are the restoration of infrastructure, modernization, and innovation of the economy – these are the areas that will require the involvement of powerful credit resources.