Bank "Financial Initiative": reviews. "Financial Initiative": feedback from customers and employees

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

When planning to become a bank client in order to make a deposit or open an account, a person first of all studies not only the history of a financial institution, but also numerous reviews. "Financial Initiative" is exactly the banking institution that attracts attention. A huge number of branches throughout Ukraine speaks of the high level of the financial organization, the demand for its services. On the other hand, there are quite a lot of negative and far from credible reviews. Bank "Financial Initiative" offers very interesting partnership conditions, but first things first.

A bit of history

The bank called "Financial Initiative" is not the last financial institution on the territory of Ukraine. His story began in 2004. At the first stages of its development, the organization offered high-quality services to both individuals and legal entities. The institution fully coped with its obligations, and there were no complaints against it. The institution is a member of the Association of Ukrainian Banks, is a member of the Kyiv Stock Exchange, PFTS and UkrKart. On thebank account membership in such reputable associations as PARD, UNIA and S. W. I. F. T. In accordance with the size of the capital of the regulatory type and the volume of assets, the institution is assigned to the second group. Despite the negative reviews, "Financial Initiative" ranks fourth in the rating of Ukrainian banks. The size of the authorized capital is UAH 2,000,000 thousand. For example, for the last reporting period of 2012, the institution's profit amounted to almost 500 thousand hryvnia. Net interest income for the last reporting period of the same year is equal to UAH 1,288,383 thousand. But that's history.

Attractive client programs

Bank "Financial Initiative" offers very interesting deposits with a good interest rate. There are several formats of cooperation with different programs:

• Initiative deposit with monthly interest payment. Its duration is 12 months.
• Interesting deposit with monthly interest payment and the possibility of replenishment. The duration of the deposit is 12 months.
• International program with capitalization and the possibility of replenishment. The duration of the program is 12 months.

There are also such deposits as "Capital", "Loyal" and "Practical". All of them differ from each other and provide very favorable conditions for investors. Until 2012, there were only positive reviews about the deposit programs of the financial institution. Bank "Financial Initiative" paid interest on time and returned the funds to depositors upon the expiration of the partnership. First rule violationspartnerships were seen in 2013.

Let's turn to history, look at the actions of the bank today. Bank "Financial Initiative", whose branches are located in different parts of the country, is a purely Ukrainian institution. The owner of its shares is Invest-Service LLC. The post of chairman of the board of the institution is occupied by Andrey Tsyktor. The financial institution, having assets in the amount of UAH 9.9 billion, has been actively involved in interbank transactions in recent years. Representatives of the institution are engaged in attracting material resources at very high rates. It should be noted that more than 50% of the funds attracted by the bank are, in fact, interbank loans. More than 80% of the money placed at interbank auctions are loans to legal entities. Information is systematically leaked into the media that the owner himself is the main creditor of the bank, but not personally, but in the person of a businessman. Bakhmatyuk, who is also the official owner of the institution, systematically rejects this theory, insisting that he does not lend to his business through cooperation with affiliated banks.

Despite adversity

Working since 2004, the bank "Financial Initiative", the feedback of employees about which had a positive connotation, has always fulfilled its obligations to customers. Despite the difficulties that the owner of the institution vehemently denies, the financial institution continues to offer a wide range of services to the population, SMEs and the corporate sector. Among the most important proposals:

• Hugerange of deposits.
• Multilateral money transfers.
• Sale of coins and banking metals.
• Servicing current bank accounts, including those with virtual metals.
• Presentation of bank guarantees.
• Daily and systematic RSC.
• Provision of safe deposit boxes for securities, precious metals.
• Issue, including the organization of the purchase and sale.
• Leasing and factoring.
• Depository activities.

The organization continues to adhere to its policy: an individual approach to each client. The main banking operations are carried out through the main office, which is located in Kyiv. Numerous self-service kiosks operate in cities such as Obukhov and Rivne, Dnepropetrovsk and Lvov, Donetsk and Zaporozhye. One of the largest branches is the Financial Initiative Bank (Kharkiv). Feedback from customers about the work of the branch is mostly positive.

How are customers received?

Each client of the financial institution speaks with great delight about the warm welcome. Numerous reviews speak of friendly employees, smiling cashiers and managers. "Financial Initiative" is an institution where they did their best to create a first pleasant impression of cooperation. If questions arise, specialists explain everything in detail, select for each client exactly the format of the service that suits him as much as possible. As the majority says, there are no doubts about the reliability and decencyarises. There is a feeling that the money is now in good hands. However, this is only the first impression, which in most situations is deceptive. There is also the opposite side of the coin, which is told by negative reviews. "Financial Initiative" over the past two years began to violate the terms of the partnership, explaining this by some incomprehensible factors. Deposit holders were hit.

What happens to depositors?

Starting in 2013, negative responses began to appear on the Internet from people who, according to them, had the imprudence to entrust their savings to the institution. At the beginning of cooperation, everything went smoothly. Interest was accrued monthly, without any delays. Everyone who wanted to cash out money without any complications. Closer to 2014, interest on deposits began to be significantly delayed, which caused some excitement among customers. They turned a blind eye to the situation until it came to withdrawing the deposit. Oddly enough, but there were many excuses as to why the Financial Initiative bank was not able to give out money. Deposits, reviews of which were the best, did not justify themselves. According to depositors, the financial institution began to offer a universal program, according to which people wanted to give out half of the deposit at the cash desk, but on the condition that the second part of the deposit would be reissued in accordance with the new contract for a new term. Not knowing how to withdraw their funds, investors began to agree even to such offers.

What about foreign currency deposits?

The strong side, which has always been distinguished by the bank "Financial Initiative", is deposits. Reviews about them over the years have had a positive connotation. The first indignation appeared on the Internet and in the media on behalf of the owners of foreign currency deposits. They claim that after the agreement expired, the bank refused to hand out dollars. Employees of the institution explained and continue to explain everything by the restrictions of the NBU. At the same time, in fact, such a strict framework does not exist. Currency transfers are open, and each person can withdraw from a bank or card an amount not exceeding $500 or the equivalent of UAH 15,000. According to some clients, the bank offered to issue a foreign currency deposit in hryvnia, but not in the amount indicated above, and not more than 1,000 hryvnia per week. The absurdity of such a situation is not worth proving once again. Another story is related to clients who decided to terminate the deposit agreement due to personal circumstances. What was their surprise when in the branch of the bank "Financial Initiative", the reviews of depositors about which were previously only positive, they reported the loss of all interest in the event of termination of the agreement. At the same time, a clause was spelled out in the document, according to which, upon termination of the partnership, the interest will be recalculated at a rate of 0.5%. To say more, it was announced about pen alties in the amount of 17% of the deposit amount. This was not exactly what the agreement stipulated. In an attempt to get an explanation of the situation, customers were dryly redirected to the official website forinformation search. Proceedings on this issue are ongoing today.

Money through rally, complaints and media

The fact that Financial Initiative Bank has far from petty problems is indicated not only by reviews on the Internet, but also by widespread appeals in the media and even to the Antimonopoly Committee and the Consumer Rights Protection Committee. It is very difficult to verify the reliability of this information, but everyone knows it. After the refusal of the bank employees to give the deposit, the clients did not give up and began to actively act. In Kharkov, a protest was even gathered near the department with posters. After raising the hype, the financial institution, although reluctantly, gradually began to fulfill its obligations. There is verified information that people still received their hard-earned money, albeit a few months later than agreed and in parts. The main thing is that the result was achieved and that in the current situation the rights were defended, despite the economic difficulties not only of the financial institution, but of the entire state.

What do the statistics say?

As mentioned above, customer feedback from Financial Initiative Bank is not always a reliable source of information. Official statistics can tell much more about the actual state of affairs in the organization. It has already been mentioned that the financial institution ranks second in the NBU rating and there is something to be proud of. The problem is that the information is correct, but only partially. The position went to the bank based on the size of its owncapital and based on assets, the amount of which is (at last count) UAH 17,538,523. As for liabilities, the amount of which is UAH 14,964,810, they brought the bank to the third place in the same rating in 2014. But the most interesting is ahead. During the last quarter of 2014, the financial institution showed a loss-making situation in the amount of UAH 86,394. And there is already something to think about. This numerical value almost automatically relegated the institution to 12th place out of 158.

Strange attempts to remedy the situation

Issuing half of the deposit when reissuing the second part for another six months is not the only trick used by the Financial Initiative (bank, Kyiv). Customer reviews told a lot of interesting things. Some people were asked to take only interest on deposits and no more than 15% of the deposit. Moreover, depositors constantly signal that their accounts are blocked, and they do not have the opportunity to pay in the store if necessary. The problem of inoperability and inactivity of cards, which was first noticed in early 2014, has now become even more relevant. Officially, bank employees declare that there are no violations on the part of the institution in terms of fulfilling obligations under deposit agreements. Moreover, the deputy board represented by Andrey Demchenko in an official interview evaded a direct answer and focused on numerous bonus programs, on a possible increase in the withdrawal limit and on increasedinterest rate. After conducting an investigative experiment in one of the branches of Kyiv, the experts found out that the cards are really inactive, and you can get no more than 15% of the deposit amount and interest on your hands. Experienced lawyers see the situation as a violation of human rights and a forced prolongation of the deposit.

Questionable liquidity

All of the above just leads to the idea that the bank "Financial Initiative" is not able to provide the optimal level of its liquidity. If the situation does not change in the near future, and the conditions for issuing deposits continue to contradict Ukrainian legislation and the Civil Code, the organization may partially stop its work until the circumstances are clarified. At the moment, if there are people who have deposits in this institution, the term of the contract for which has already been exhausted, they should do the following:

• Send a complaint to the National Bank of Ukraine.
• Submit a lawsuit to recover the full amount of the deposit from the financial institution.

Today the bank continues to operate and still accepts deposits from interested parties. We can say that you should not believe beautiful advertising and tempting interest. Feedback from employees about the bank, of course, is positive, but they can not really be trusted. Nobody wants to tell the truth and then lose their job. The dynamics of profit perfectly illustrates the situation in the corporation. The first signal to be more careful appears when the bank offers the best interest on the deposit. It is worth considering what prompted the management of the institution to partially abandonprofit and go beyond the existing standards.