The Ukrainian central bank, the National Bank of Ukraine (the "NBU"), continues to ease strict currency control measures on the cross-border movement of capital. Another step towards easement of the established restrictions was the adoption on 28 July 2016 of the decision1 on liberalization of certain requirements on cross-border payments for export and import operations.

Pursuant to this decision the NBU: 

• extended the term for settlement of payments under export-import operations from 90 days to 120 days; and
• mitigated certain requirements for advance payments under import contracts: the requirement of obtaining a letter of credit for making advance payments now applies to contracts with total contract value of over USD 1 million instead of the earlier threshold of USD 500,000.

The decision of the NBU came into effect on 29 July 2016.

At the same time, numerous restrictions approved by the NBU within the last two years remain effective. Please refer to our earlier legal alert in relation to the rest of the contingency measures of the NBU which remain unchanged by following the link.

1 NBU Board Resolution No. 361 “On Amending Certain Legal Acts of the National Bank of Ukraine”, dated 28 July 2016 and effective from 29 July 2016

Additional notes

This LEGAL ALERT is issued to inform Baker & McKenzie clients and other interested parties of legal developments that may affect or otherwise be of interest to them. The comments above do not constitute legal or other advice and should not be regarded as a substitute for specific advice in individual cases.