A client of PrivatBank lost 68,000 hryvnias from her accounts—did the court order the funds to be returned?

A woman had 68,000 hryvnias withdrawn from her card accounts. She filed a complaint with the police and contacted PrivatBank demanding an investigation into the situation and the funds. This is stated in the decision of the Avtozavodskyi District Court of Kremenchuk, published on December 9, 2024.

On August 2, 2022, 39,000 hryvnias were withdrawn from the woman's card account, specifically 28,000 hryvnias and 11,000 hryvnias for "payment of transactions via the self-service terminal in Zaporizhzhia." Additionally, 29,000 hryvnias were withdrawn from her card account, which included 18,000 hryvnias for "payment of transactions via the self-service terminal in Zaporizhzhia" and 1,226 hryvnias for "transfer of funds upon termination of the contract." On August 3, 2022, information was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations regarding the fraudulent acquisition of funds.

What decision did the court make?

The court granted the woman's claim. It declared the transactions made on August 2, 2022, to transfer 39,000 hryvnias from her credit card to the JSC CB "PrivatBank" as invalid. It also recognized the transactions made on August 2, 2022, to transfer 48,226 hryvnias from the payment card to JSC CB "PrivatBank" as invalid. JSC CB "PrivatBank" was ordered to restore the account balances to the state they were in before the unauthorized financial operations on August 2, 2022, and to cancel the penalties imposed by JSC CB "PrivatBank" on the transactions from August 2, 2022.

"The court takes into account that after the discovery of the unjustified withdrawal of funds, the plaintiff informed JSC CB 'PrivatBank' about this, as confirmed by the materials of the internal investigation, and also contacted law enforcement regarding this matter. The aforementioned evidence, in the court's opinion, confirms that she did not engage in actions indicating a violation of the terms and conditions of banking services, and the loss of her financial number occurred due to fraudulent actions. In turn, the defendant did not provide the court with evidence that the withdrawal of funds occurred as a result of the plaintiff's actions or inactions that contributed to the loss, illegal use of the personal identification number (code), or other actions that would allow initiating payment operations on the credit card. In the court's view, an effective means of protecting the plaintiff's rights is to declare the transactions that occurred on August 2, 2022, as invalid and restore the amount of funds that were accounted for on the account while canceling the penalties imposed on the transactions from August 2, 2022. Therefore, the court grants the claim," the court emphasized.