The National Bank of Ukraine has simplified the terms of foreign currency trading for banks and international financial institutions in accordance with the Comprehensive Program of the Ukrainian Financial Sector Development until 2020 and taking into account proposals made by various market players, the regulator announced, reported by UNIAN.
The regulator refers to Resolution #143, which will come into force on 2 January 2018. The innovations provided by the aforementioned resolution will simplify the procedure for banks to carry out arbitrage transactions, namely the purchase or sale of foreign currency for a different foreign currency without using the hryvnia. Also, international financial institutions will be enabled to buy or sell foreign currency in any Ukrainian bank they choose, as opposed to the institution where they have an open account. The central bank also facilitates the purchase of foreign currency to perform loan obligations and to register client transactions on the interbank currency market.
The National Bank has announced further deregulation of the currency market in order to stabilize the exchange rate of hryvnia, provided that comprehensive currency liberalization will be possible after new legislature regarding foreign currency comes into force.
A number of restrictions by the National Bank is still applied to individuals and corporations, including the compulsory sale of 50% of foreign currency proceeds, the advance transfer of hryvnias to purchase foreign currency at customer’s request, and the daily restriction on purchase of foreign currency in cash for individuals in the equivalent of UAH 150,000 ($5,367) at the current exchange rate.
