The Supreme Court explained that the right to demand that a bank return a deposit can be gifted separately from the money itself. Deposits in Ukraine are guaranteed by the state at 100% during martial law.
Proof that funds were paid into an account may be the agreement with the bank together with a savings passbook, a certificate or another document that complies with banking rules, writesnovyny. live.
How the right to a deposit can be transferred
An accountholder can transfer to another person the right to demand that a bank return their savings without withdrawing the cash. The court gave an example where an accountholder gifted their wife the right to receive the funds from the account.
The Supreme Court found that the right to a deposit is distinct from the cash itself, so the absence of changes in the original agreement with the bank does not negate the gifting of that right.
Documents required to gift the right to a deposit
The court drew attention to the difference between gifting money and transferring the right to withdraw it from a deposit: these are different methods of gifting with different formal requirements. If it concerns the right to a deposit or a promise to transfer a gift in the future, the agreement must be made in writing.
A separate requirement applies to currency valuables between private individuals: when the sum exceeds 850 hryvnia, the agreement must be notarised.
Recipient’s rights after the donor’s death
In the case considered by the Supreme Court, the accountholder had executed with a notary a deed gifting the right to the deposit and later died. The person who had been gifted the right applied to the bank for payment of interest and the principal, but the bank refused.
The Supreme Court concluded that a properly executed gift of the right to a deposit does not lose effect because of the donor’s death, and additional obstacles should not be created for the recipient of that right.
