Formally, this is a story about one banker. In essence, it's about the state of the country as it approaches the sale of one of the largest banks in the nation, which is planned to be privatized by the end of 2026.
The National Bank recognized Sensebank Board Chairman Alexei Stupak as not meeting professional suitability requirements and demanded his dismissal. "The Committee unanimously adopted the decision at an in-person meeting in the presence of Mr. Stupak," said NBU Governor Andrii Pyshnyi at a session of the Verkhovna Rada's temporary investigative commission.
Two Problems in One Person
The NBU launched an investigation into Stupak in May — before the banker received a suspicion notice from NABU for money laundering. That is, the regulator was not alarmed by the criminal proceedings, but by what was revealed during the administrative investigation: signs of a hidden parallel bank management structure that operated until 2022, when the institution was still operating under the Alfa-Bank brand.
Stupak took the helm of the board only on February 19, 2024, but has worked at the bank since June 2019. A parallel management structure means that real decisions are made not by the bodies prescribed in the charter and reports, but by another, non-public channel. For a bank that the state is preparing to sell to a private investor, this is a critical flaw: the buyer must purchase a transparent structure, not a legacy with unknown origins of decisions.
Why Dismissal Isn't as Simple as It Seems
Formally, dismissing the head of a state bank's board is the exclusive prerogative of the supervisory board. But at Sensebank, the supervisory board currently lacks a quorum. The NBU found a way out through law 3587-IX, which during martial law gives the shareholder — that is, the government — the right to make decisions in the absence of a quorum in the supervisory board.
"The requirement adopted yesterday by the National Bank regarding the replacement of Sensebank's management is directed at the owner, and we hope it will be implemented just as quickly," said Pyshnyi.
In other words: the supervisory body that should be responsible for staffing decisions at the bank is paralyzed, and the state is manually taking over the function that corporate governance would normally perform.
The Price of the Question — Privatization
Sensebank was nationalized in July 2023 following the abandonment of the Russian Alfa-Bank brand, under which the institution had operated since 2001. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the intention to sell the bank to a private owner by the end of 2026.
Each month that passes with unresolved questions regarding criminal suspicions and opaque management structures in the bank's leadership, and a non-functional supervisory board, is an argument for a potential buyer to negotiate a lower price or postpone the deal altogether. The question is not whether the Cabinet will dismiss Stupak — speed has already become a matter of public pressure from the NBU. The question is whether the state will manage to restore normal corporate structure to the bank before it starts looking for a buyer, or whether it will sell the asset with outstanding governance problems unresolved.
