Ukrainians are increasingly complaining about debt collectors: the NBU has received almost a thousand complaints since the beginning of 2025

Ukrainians are increasingly complaining about debt collectors. Photo: ua.depositphotos.com

Over the past four years, the National Bank of Ukraine has received 3,101 complaints about the activities of collection companies. Almost a thousand of them have been received this year, which is already higher than the figure for the whole of last year.

According to Opendatabot, an average of 104 complaints per month are received in 2025, which is a third more than last year and twice as many as in 2023. Since the law on collection activities came into force in 2021, more than 60% of all complaints have been received in the last two years.

Ukrainians are increasingly complaining about debt collectors. Infographic: Opendatabot

There are currently 74 collection companies operating in Ukraine, listed in a special NBU Register. Since its inception, 82 companies have been included, but eight of them have already lost their right to operate — half by their own decision and the rest due to violations of the requirements. Among those excluded are two companies with the same name: «Credit Enforcement Service», which belonged to the British EXTRA VENTURE LTD.

Most collection firms are registered in the capital — 54 out of 74. Another six companies operate in Zaporizhzhia region, and five in Chernihiv region.

The total revenue of the industry in 2024 reached over 1 billion hryvnias, and net profit was 384.7 million hryvnias.

The market leader was the financial company «EAPB», part of the TAS group of Serhii Tihipko: its revenue last year was 409.2 million hryvnias and net profit was 156.4 million hryvnias. Together with a related company of the same name, the group accounted for 41% of the industry's revenue and 80% of net profit.

The top three players also include «Smartfinance» (90.3 million hryvnias in revenue, owned by Olha Duma and Oleksandr Drozd) and «Credit Express Ukraine EL.EL.C.» (71.3 million hryvnias, beneficiary is Swede Jost Lennart Ogren). Together with the related company «Debtfort Ukraine», they received almost 93 million hryvnias in revenue.

Interestingly, one person owns eight collection companies at once. According to the NBU, the record holder is Viacheslav Holub, who accounts for almost every ninth company in the Register. Last year, his companies earned 52.8 million hryvnias and received UAH 4 million in net profit.

Earlier, Opendatabot reported that criminal cases for content «18+» increased by 13% in Ukraine.