A client of Oschadbank lost 288,224 hryvnias from her account and is seeking a refund. What was the court's decision?

A woman lost 288,224 hryvnias from her bank card. She believes that Oschadbank, through its actions or lack thereof, contributed to the loss, the illegal use of her personal identification number, or other information that enabled payment transactions, and thus should compensate her for the funds. This is stated in the decision of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, published on February 17, 2025.

On February 24, 2022, the woman was in a temporarily occupied area, specifically in the city of Horlivka in the Donetsk region, and since that date, she has been unable to withdraw money from her bank card. Mobile communication also ceased, so she did not receive any messages from the bank. She entrusted her granddaughter to withdraw funds from the card. In May 2022, during another attempt by her granddaughter to withdraw cash from the ATM of JSC "State Oschadbank of Ukraine," the card was confiscated, and she was advised to obtain a new card at the bank branch.

On July 6, 2023, the woman issued a power of attorney in her granddaughter's name, granting her the right to represent her interests at JSC "State Oschadbank of Ukraine." After the bank's security service verified the power of attorney, on October 17, 2023, the authorized representative received a payment card linked to the pension account, while also changing the financial phone number. On the same day, she decided to create a personal account for the pension account in the Oschad24 online banking system. To do this, she called the Oschadbank hotline and set up a PIN code. When attempting to create the personal account, the bank sent a message stating that the personal account was registered and suggested changing the password. After confirming the digital code received via SMS, the authorized representative accessed the Oschad24 online banking and saw a negative balance in the account, specifically: as of October 17, 2023, the current balance was -63 hryvnias. According to the bank statement, it was established that unauthorized withdrawals occurred from December 17, 2022, to September 18, 2023. A message regarding the aforementioned circumstances was immediately sent to the hotline.

According to information provided by JSC "State Oschadbank of Ukraine," it was reported that on December 17, 2022, a personal account was created from the financial number, and a PIN code was generated for the new card, which was kept at the bank itself. Thus, from May 2022 to October 2023, unknown individuals, with the assistance of bank employees, fraudulently gained access to the Oschad24 online banking and, with no obstruction from the bank's security service, misappropriated funds from the card account opened in JSC "State Oschadbank of Ukraine" in her name by creating other cards in the Oschad24 online banking and transferring the entire amount to other accounts totaling 288,224 hryvnias.

"From December 17, 2022, to September 18, 2023, an operation was initiated and carried out by the bank to withdraw funds from the account in the amount of 283,872 hryvnias, which occurred in accordance with the terms of the agreement, based on the data of the payment card and access code personally entered by the plaintiff, which was sent to the financial phone number of the plaintiff. At the same time, the plaintiff personally entered the card details, including CVC, and used the access code that was sent after entering the payment card data to the client's financial phone number, which remained unchanged," the bank stated.

What did the court decide?

The court granted the woman’s claim. Funds in the amount of 288,224 hryvnias will be recovered from the joint-stock company "State Oschadbank of Ukraine" in her favor.

"The court concludes that JSC 'State Oschadbank of Ukraine' contributed to the loss, the illegal use of the personal identification number, or other information enabling payment transactions through its actions or inaction, and therefore must compensate the plaintiff for the damages incurred in the amount of 288,224 hryvnias," the court emphasized.