The decision of the National Bank of Ukraine to revoke the banking license of "Concord" bank was unexpected. The withdrawal of a profitable financial institution from the market is still accompanied by violations of the rights of its shareholders. Co-founder of "Concord" Yulia Sosedka told about how she learned about the bank's shutdown and how its liquidation process is going, writes UNN.
The switch was turned off
On August 1, 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine decided to revoke the banking license and liquidate "Concord", citing violations in the form of "mis-coding". This is incorrect coding of transactions after the legalization of gambling in Ukraine. However, "Concord" constantly complied with the requirements of international payment systems Mastercard and Visa and had no fines or remarks over the last two years of its operation.
According to Yulia Sosedka, she learned about the National Bank's decision while abroad. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she fled the war to Israel with her six children.
The bank was audited, and we are accused of operations that are not regulated by law (the concept of mis-coding does not exist in Ukrainian legislation - ed.)... These operations are related to acquiring. At the same time, the National Bank blames us for these operations, while Visa and Mastercard, i.e., those who monitor these operations, have no complaints against us.
According to her, the Visa payment system, on the contrary, then recognized "Concord" as the most technologically advanced principal bank in Ukraine, meaning a bank that acts as an intermediary between the system and other less advanced banks.
"They fully recognize us, choose us as their best partners, they cooperate with us," Yulia Sosedka explained.
However, the National Bank, believing that an error had been made in the bank's operations, ignored this fact and decided to immediately apply the harshest measures against "Concord".
Understanding its responsibility to its clients and in order not to stop the bank's operations, "Concord" paid a large fine imposed by the regulator and simultaneously prepared documents to appeal this sanction. At the same time, the management was constantly in contact with its curator from the NBU.
After that, a meeting was held with the National Bank, during which the chairman of the board of "Concord" presented to the regulator a new development plan for the financial institution, which excluded the possibility of acquiring. Yulia Sosedka notes that after this meeting, the shareholders were confident that the bank would continue its further technological development, especially since the issue of acquiring was not regulated by law.
The NBU disconnected "Concord" from the electronic payment system before the meeting, but the cards were still working.
"In the evening, our cards became invalid. They just turned off the switch on us, they just turned off the switch on us," Yulia Sosedka recalls.
Due to the bank's liquidation, more than a thousand people were left without work. In addition, due to this decision of the National Bank, the "DobroDiy" Charity Exchange, founded by Yulia and Olena Sosedka, suffered. All senior management deducted 10% of their salaries for charity, and the bank itself also helped the Exchange.
"DobroDiy" continues to help seriously ill children, as well as the Defense Forces, but after the liquidation of "Concord", according to Yulia Sosedka, it has become more difficult to do so.
Liquidation process
During the liquidation, "Concord" fully settled with everyone - depositors, private entrepreneurs, legal entities, and others. Only shareholders from the authorized capital have not yet received their funds back.
We won two lawsuits - the court of first instance, the appellate court - regarding the fact that the National Bank illegally deprived us of our license. The National Bank filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court rejected us. With an absolutely mocking wording - we were rejected because we had no right to sue the National Bank. We were not rejected on the merits. They wrote it that way. We say - what about the rights of shareholders? I am a shareholder, but I am also a person, why do I not have the right to sue? Moreover, the court of first instance recognized the correctness, as did the court of second instance.
According to her, she experiences this a little easier than her sister, co-founder of "Concord" Olena Sosedka. Yulia Sosedka noted that motherhood helps them cope with the situation - both Olena and Yulia are mothers of many children, who have the status of "Mother-Heroine".
"It's very difficult. Where does she (Olena - ed.) find the strength to smile? Well, probably children, just like me. Because we are also mothers, we turned out to be so fruitful. I have six children, Lena also has six. Five and an adult adopted daughter whom she adopted when the girl was already 11 years old. Well, in general, that's the story. That's such a wild story," Yulia Sosedka noted.
Let's add
The Collegium of the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court on July 30, 2025, closed the proceedings in the dispute between "Concord" bank and the National Bank of Ukraine and the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals. Earlier, the courts of first and appellate instances recognized the NBU's decision to withdraw the bank from the market as illegal, but the Supreme Court overturned these decisions without even considering the case on its merits.
In its ruling, the collegium explicitly stated that no court in Ukraine is empowered to consider lawsuits by shareholders of banks undergoing liquidation regarding unlawful actions or decisions of the National Bank of Ukraine.
In this resolution, the Cassation Administrative Court within the Supreme Court set forth a legal conclusion that, according to the peculiarities of the legal regulation of the disputed legal relations, the claims of a former shareholder of an insolvent bank (in this case, a liquidated bank) are not subject to consideration either in administrative or commercial proceedings, and by the subjective composition of the participants in the legal relations, they do not fall under the jurisdiction of a civil court. That is, such claims are not subject to consideration by any court.
Thus, the Supreme Court did not evaluate the decisions of the lower courts and did not recognize that they were illegal or unfounded. The co-founder of "Concord" bank Olena Sosedka considers the court's decision biased, according to her, the shareholders were deprived of their constitutional rights to protection.
Recall
Despite the war in Ukraine, the process of withdrawing banks from the market has not stopped. Thus, since February 24, 2022, liquidation has been initiated for 8 banks. In 2023, for the first time in Ukraine, not only bankrupt banks but also profitable institutions were subject to liquidation and license revocation - this refers to "Concord" bank. As the co-founder of the bank Olena Sosedka stated, at the time the regulator announced the decision to liquidate the bank, the financial institution had enough highly liquid assets to make all necessary payments within 2-3 weeks. However, the bank liquidation process is strictly regulated by law and can generally last up to three years.