NBU eased foreign transactions for the Ukrainians

The National Bank of Ukraine has revised the principles of licensing of the individuals’ transactions that involve placing funds into foreign accounts and making investments abroad.

The changes are set forth in Decree of the National Bank of Ukraine (hereinafter, the “NBU”) No. 14 dated 23 February 2017 “On amendments to certain regulatory legal acts of the National Bank of Ukraine (hereinafter, “Decree No. 14”). The amendments became effective on 25 February 2017.

According to Decree No. 14, the following personal transactions no longer require individual licenses of the NBU:

1) Placement of currency funds sourced outside Ukraine into foreign accounts, in particular, funds received as salary, scholarship, pension, alimony, dividends, etc.

2) Investments made abroad using the funds held outside Ukraine, in particular, investments made from foreign accounts, re-investment of funds outside Ukraine, trading in financial instruments on foreign stock exchanges, etc.

However, the individuals still have to obtain individual licenses from NBU to remit funds from Ukraine in order to invest or place such funds on foreign accounts. This requirement is set out in Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 15-93 dated 19 February 1993 “On currency regulation and control system” and is aimed at preventing nonproductive outflow of capital from Ukraine.

According to the NBU, further liberalization of personal currency transactions that currently require licensing will be based on a New currency regulation concept and a new law “On currency” – a uniform framework law on currency regulation, which is currently being drafted by the NBU jointly with the experts engaged by the European Commission.

We will be happy to provide you with advisory support on the issues you may have in relation to the aforementioned legislative changes.