In 2023, Universal Bank, which is the operating base of the popular monobank, evaded paying about 750 million hryvnia in taxes. Such conclusions follow from an analysis of the financial indicators of companies related to the fintech product.
After the introduction of a 50% income tax rate for banks (instead of 20%, as for ordinary companies), Universal Bank significantly reduced its taxable income, transferring at least UAH 2.5 billion to a related structure — Fintech Bend LLC, which actually develops and maintains monobank.
Fintech Band is a company owned by Oleg Gorokhovsky (ex-developer of Privat24) and Dmytro Dubilet (son of the former head of Privatbank). It is the company that provides services to Universal Bank, including digital infrastructure, product design, and customer service.
The conditional “lease” of the brand, application maintenance, technology — all of this is formalized as services that the bank purchases from “Fintech Bend.” At the same time, the company is not a bank, so its profit is taxed at a rate of only 20%.
With the rate increase to 50% for banks, Universal Bank sharply increased payments to the Fintech Band — with over UAH 2.5 billion in income that would otherwise have been included in bank profits. As a result:
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instead of UAH 1.25 billion in tax (50% of UAH 2.5 billion), the bank paid only about UAH 0.5 billion;
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Fintech Band declared profits at a rate of 20%, thus saving at least UAH 750 million in taxes.
"This is a classic example of a scheme: a bank's profit, which should be taxed at a higher rate, is 'transferred' to a related company under market or pseudo-market contracts. Formally, everything is legal, but in essence, it is a circumvention of tax legislation," comments an expert in the field of banking law, who wished to remain anonymous.
Monobank is not a separate bank, but only a fintech product. It is technically serviced by Fintech Band LLC, and banking licenses and all regulatory obligations are held by Universal Bank, which is part of the Tigipko Group.
Oleg Gorohovsky and Dmytro Dubilet are co-founders of monobank and are actively developing it as a brand — with their own Telegram channels, merchandise, and hype promos.
However, behind the marketing brilliance lies a harsh tax reality.
Is this legal?
Formally, yes. But in essence, it is the transfer of income between related entities in order to reduce the tax burden. In developed jurisdictions, such actions often fall under transfer pricing control.
“The issue is not only in legal subtleties, but in ethics: when the country is at war and every hryvnia is needed for the front, the largest private bank with millions of clients evades an additional 750 million to the budget,” notes one of the analysts.
The tax service has not commented on the situation yet. However, in the event of political or public outcry, the scheme may become the subject of investigation or legislative clarification.
