On 19 July 2012 the National Bank of Ukraine (the "NBU") amended the procedure of payments and purchasing/exchange of foreign currency under foreign economic contracts between Ukrainian residents and non-residents.  Now any foreign currency purchase or exchange operations under each foreign economic contract must be performed by the resident with a single bank to be chosen by this resident.  Additionally, the NBU extended the grounds for residents to purchase/exchange foreign currency.  These amendments became effective on 23 August 2012.

In effect, the NBU imposed a “one contract – one bank” rule, which provides that the client of a Ukrainian bank must purchase and/or exchange foreign currency for all settlements under the foreign economic contract trade operations with a single bank. Therefore, simultaneous servicing of a single foreign economic contract in multiple banks is forbidden.

Nevertheless, residents are allowed to switch servicing banks.  In such case the prior servicing bank will be obliged to transfer to the new bank all information on completed transactions under the respective contract.

Changes also provide residents with additional grounds to purchase/exchange foreign currency.  In particular, a resident may purchase/exchange foreign currency to settle with a non-resident under the agency agreement authorizing a resident to sell goods and services of such non-resident in Ukraine.  Therefore, a resident may use UAH proceeds from such sale to purchase foreign currency for this purpose.

Moreover, residents may also purchase foreign currency to provide deposits to non-residents in order to participate in the process of procurement of goods.  The maximum size of such deposit may not exceed EUR 10 000 per year per one non-resident.

These amendments were adopted in pursuance of the Regulation “On Amendments to Certain Regulations of the NBU”, adopted by the Resolution of the Board of the NBU No. 308 dated 19 July 2012 and which came into force on 23 August 2012 (the “Regulation”).  The Regulation altered the Regulation “On Foreign Currency Trade”, approved by Resolution of the Board of the NBU No. 281 dated 10 October 2005.

By introducing the amendments the NBU clarified the way for purchasing/exchange of foreign currency for cross-border payments between non-residents and residents of Ukraine under foreign economic contracts.  NBU also introduced certain additional limitations on purchasing of foreign currency, and due to changes in legislation governing the import of goods, also amended the list of documents to be provided by the client to the bank to purchase foreign currency in certain circumstances.