The study aims to analyse banks’ investment in securities during the post-crisis period and reveal the constraints accompanying this process. Grouping the banks by the portion of assets, invested in securities, we peculiar models of the banks’ behaviour on the securities’ market that differ by the levels of risk taken. Passive invest-ment strategy, that implies less than 10% of securities’ portfolio invested under the terms of merchant portfolio, is the most popular among banks. Based on historical analysis of banks’ investment in securities, we make the conclusion that economic downturn is one of the factors of increasing the share of banks’ securities portfolio in their assets.
We find that risk level of bank’s securities portfolio highly depends on the portfolio’s share in the bank’s as-sets. Based on this conclusion, it turns out that the banks of the third and fourth groups (percentage of assets invested in securities is less than 10% and 5% respectively) compile the main potential funds for investing in risky securities like corporate bonds and stocks. Among the main constraints accompanying the process of banks’ investment in securities are: the size of securities’ market, particularly, the absence of sufficient supply of investment-grade securities; high level of market concentration on both supply and demand sides (in par-ticular government bonds and banks’ funds respectively); and the absence of the opportunity to invest in foreign-listed securities.

Keywords:banks’ investments, securities, portfolio of securities, stock market, reserves for active operations

Since 2008, the tendencies in the activities of Ukrainian banks have undergone a considerable change, making it possible for the author to firmly mention the deep transformations not only in the banking system itself, but also in its interaction with public, corporate and households’ finances, as well as with foreign investors. The article aims at outlining the above mentioned transformations and analyzing their short- and medium-term consequences.
The author investigates the changes in the investment strategy of Ukrainian banks during the post-crisis period (2009 – first half of 2013). The article considers the incentives for the changes of the banks’ investment priorities and analyzes the advantages of government bonds as the main financial instrument of investment.
The author proves that the redistribution of resources by the types of investment is caused, first of all, by the banks’ reaction to the current economic conditions rather than revision of the strategies of their investment activities: the post-crisis transformations of the banks’ investment strategy show the limited number of investment type, barriers to the banks’ entrance to the foreign investment market, concentration of the domestic market of financial tools and the need to further raise the efficiency of the mechanisms of the overall redistribution of financial resources between economic activities

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