KIEV, Oct. 23 - The National Bank of Ukraine has no plans to expand loan support for Prominvestbank and, instead, is pushing for the bank to bring in a strategic investor as soon as possible, the head of the National Bank, Volodymyr Stelmakh, told journalists on Wednesday.

"Its like slow death. The more we delay, the more problems will multiply," he said.

It was earlier reported that in September Prominvestbank announced it was undergoing a raider action, which resulted in depositors withdrawing their funds from the bank on a massive scale. The NBU decided to support Prominvestbank by opening a UAH5 billion (UAH5.09/$1 on Oct. 23) yearlong loan facility to the bank at the end of September. However, owing to the unsatisfactory actions of Prominvestbank's management, the NBU took temporary administrative control (up to one year) over the bank on Oct. 7 and put a moratorium on meeting creditor requirements for six months.