Supreme Court rejects €3 billion claim against PrivatBank

A former client of PrivatBank, who in 1995 deposited 900 million karbovanets (about $6,000 at the exchange rate at the time), sought to claim nearly €3 billion in court. However, on July 30, 2025, Ukraine’s Supreme Court declared the contract on which the client’s claim was based invalid, the Ministry of Justice reported.

Under the terms of the agreement, the man deposited 900 million karbovanets into the bank’s cash desk for four years, with monthly interest payments calculated at an annual rate of 220%.

According to the bank, the deposit was paid out to the client in 1996.

Despite this, in September 2011 the client filed a lawsuit with the Leninsky District Court of Luhansk, seeking to have the agreement recognized as extended. As a result of those proceedings, PrivatBank was ordered to return the deposit with interest up to July 6, 2003.

PrivatBank was nationalized in 2016, but since these liabilities were not recorded on its balance sheet or off-balance-sheet accounts, the Cabinet of Ministers only became aware of them in 2021, after the depositor petitioned foreign courts — the Frankfurt Regional Court and the Nicosia District Court — to recognize and enforce the 2012 Ukrainian court rulings.

The depositor demanded nearly €3 billion in total.

Following the latest proceedings, the Cabinet of Ministers prevailed.

The court applied the principle of lex specialis — that a special law overrides a general law — giving precedence to Article 41-1 of Ukraine’s Law "On the System of Guaranteeing Individual Deposits" over the provisions of the Civil Code. This article nullifies any transaction whose obligations were not recorded at the moment the state acquired ownership of the bank’s shares, regardless of when the original agreement was signed.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court confirmed the invalidity of the 1995 deposit agreement.

"This outcome is extremely important, as it not only prevented substantial financial losses, but also avoided setting a negative precedent that could encourage others with unrecorded obligations to demand their fulfillment," the Ministry of Justice stated.

After PrivatBank’s nationalization in 2016, the state spent UAH 155 billion on its financial rehabilitation. In February 2023, the Supreme Court confirmed that PrivatBank could not be returned to its former owners.