Instead of going to a bank, Ukrainians are increasingly turning to microfinance organizations (MFIs) for loans. According to information from Opendatabot, more than 2.17 million loan agreements were concluded with MFIs in the first quarter of 2025. This is 8% more than in the same period last year.

It is noteworthy that the number of long-term loans in the MFI portfolio increased 15 times. The share of loans with a maturity of 32 to 92 days decreased by more than 5 times. This may indicate that MFIs are beginning to take over the share of banks in the consumer lending segment.

At the same time, over the past year, the total amount of Ukrainian debt to IFIs has doubled: from UAH 11.85 billion in the first quarter of 2024 to UAH 24.3 billion in the first quarter of 2025.

LIGA.net analyzed the market situation and found out how MFIs attract borrowers, what advantages they have over banks, why NPL (non-performing loans) of microcredit organizations is growing while banks' NPL is falling, and whether the National Bank and market experts see this as a threat.

Disable ads
You need to subscribe to read this article. Go to the full version of the page.
loansbankslendingmicrofinance organizations