New Resolutions No. 354 and No. 355 of the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine (“NBU”) dated 3 June 2015 enter into force as of 4 June 2015

Dentons, Kyiv, Ukraine, 
Wed, June 3, 2015

Resolution No. 354 was adopted to replace the earlier“anti-crisis” Resolution of the NBU No. 160  dated 03 March 2015, as amended,that expires on 3 June 2015. As a general matter, the Resolution prolongs thepreviously effective anti-crisis measures. 

The prolonged measures include, among others, thefollowing:

• The mandatory sale of 75 percent of foreign currency proceeds received from abroad by legal entities (except banks), individual entrepreneurs, and foreign representative offices (except for official (diplomatic) representative offices).
• The restriction on cross-border payment of dividends to foreign investors.
• The restriction on early repayment under loan agreements between Ukrainian borrowers and foreign creditors (subject to certain exceptions).
• Prohibition for banks from providing loans in national currency (including prolongation of previously provided credit lines), if such loans are secured by pledges of funds in foreign currency.
• With certain exceptions, banks are still prohibited from purchasing foreign currency for clients (except for private persons), that have their own foreign currency funds (either on current bank accounts or deposit accounts in banks).
• Additional documents still must be provided for purchase/payments in foreign currency exceeding US$50,000. In particular, for import operations, these include a certificate from the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine confirming no indebtedness in respect of tax payments.
• Banks are prohibited from the purchase and transfer of foreign currency to foreign investors in certain cases concerning the return of capital (e.g. a decrease of a company’s charter capital or the foreign investor’s withdrawal as a participant / shareholder in a company.)
• Certain restrictions have been prolonged in respect of transactions for the purchase of precious metals.

Among the new restrictions, we note the following:

• Restriction for banks to buy foreign currency on behalf of their clients-residents, which have on their bank account funds in foreign currency, will affect only clients which have more than US$25,000 (in equivalent by official exchange rate). Previously such limit equalled US$10,000.
• Increasing of limit of cash withdrawal through ATM or cash departments of the banks from the previous threshold of UAH 150,000 to UAH 300,000.

Resolution No. 354 remains in force until 3 September2015.

Resolution No. 355 also introduces certain changes toexisting restrictions regarding currency operations. In particular, ResolutionNo.355 raises the threshold for obtaining a price evaluation act for thepayment of services abroad from the previous threshold of €25,000 to €50,000.