Counterfeiting of banknotes increases in Ukraine, UAH 500 and UAH 200 banknotes most often counterfeited in 2024

The level of counterfeiting of national currency banknotes according to the results of 2024 has experienced a moderate increase compared to the extremely low indicators of 2022–2023 and has approached the values ​​​​of 2021, which preceded the full-scale invasion.

This is stated in the NBU message, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

At the same time, the situation remains controlled and does not pose a threat to the country's economy.

Thus, according to the results of 2024, there were about 5.1 counterfeit banknotes per 1 million genuine hryvnia banknotes.

While in 2021 this figure was higher and amounted to about 7.1 counterfeit banknotes.

For comparison: according to the European Central Bank, the similar indicator in the countries of the European Union in 2023 was more than three times higher and amounted to approximately 16 counterfeit euro banknotes (in 2021 - almost twice as high as the Ukrainian one, 12 counterfeit euro banknotes. The ECB has not yet published data for 2024).

The moderate increase in the level of counterfeiting of hryvnia banknotes in 2024 was due to the increase in the activity of criminals, which is explained by their certain adaptation to the realities of martial law and the desire to check the effectiveness of the banking and law enforcement systems in combating such cases.

Most often in 2024, banknotes of two denominations were withdrawn from circulation:

UAH 500 (78% of the total number of counterfeits removed);

UAH 200 (18%).

Other counterfeit banknotes withdrawn from circulation in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and UAH 1,000 accounted for only 4%.

Last year (as in 2021–2023), the most counterfeited hryvnia banknotes were old-style.

According to the results of 2024, counterfeit hryvnia banknotes of the new style account for only 5.5% of the total number of counterfeits withdrawn in the banking system of Ukraine. Accordingly, the number of counterfeit hryvnia banknotes of the new style per one million genuine banknotes in circulation was only 0.3 piece last year.

For the most part, these counterfeit national currency banknotes were of low quality and were designed to attract the attention of citizens and cashiers of retail establishments.

This is due to the fact that the banknotes of the national currency of the modern generation, in particular in denominations of UAH 100, 200, 500 and 1,000, which the National Bank put into circulation in 2015–2020, have an improved design and a reinforced security system and are not inferior in design and security to the euro banknotes of the “Europe” series and the U.S. dollar banknotes of the “New Generation” series.

The banknotes of the modern generation of hryvnia have an updated design, special banknote paper is used for their protection, and for banknotes of high denominations, which criminals most often try to counterfeit, modern optically variable security elements are used: a “window” security tape and a SPARK element with kinetic effects of background image movement and color change, respectively.

They are easy for citizens to check, and practically impossible for criminals to reproduce.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in 2023, the most frequently counterfeited banknotes were UAH 200, UAH 500 and UAH 100.

According to the results of 2023, there were about 2.1 counterfeit banknotes per 1 million genuine hryvnia banknotes (according to the results of 2022, there were about 2.2 banknotes).