NBU eases a number of currency restrictions

The National Bank has eased a number of currency restrictions.

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

Firstly, the opportunities for companies within the framework of stimulating currency liberalization are expanding.

The NBU is introducing a new incentive limit - the "loan" limit - to increase the flexibility of Ukrainian companies in managing the funds they attract from abroad. The key goal of such changes is to create a regulatory framework to facilitate the restructuring of "old" external loans by domestic companies, which is important for attracting new resources to the Ukrainian economy.

The amount of the "loan" limit will be equal to the amount of funds received under a loan or credit from abroad in foreign currency to the company's account in a Ukrainian bank after January 1, 2026.

Within the "loan" limit, businesses will be able to carry out the operations provided for by the stimulus liberalization:

• repayment of "old" loans and borrowings (obtained before June 20, 2023) and payment of interest on them;
• settlements for the import of goods, the delivery of which was made before February 23, 2021;
• return to the non-resident buyer of the prepayment for the goods, which was paid before February 23, 2022;
• financing of own foreign separate divisions (above the established limit);
• repatriation of dividends (above the established limit).

The peculiarities of the "loan" limit include the following:

• in the event of repayment of the principal amount of the borrowed loan, the maximum amount within the “loan” limit will be reduced equivalently;
• after transactions within the “loan” limit are made, the transfer of funds from Ukraine to repay the principal amount of the borrowed loan is limited to the amount of the loan debt, reduced by the amount of transactions made within the limit;
• currency transactions within the “loan” limit are carried out in the bank to the accounts of which the business received the borrowed loan.

Other parameters of such loans must comply with the general conditions for "new" borrowings from abroad, established by the NBU Board Resolution No. 18 dated February 24, 2022 (as amended):

• the loan must have a maximum interest rate of 12% per annum;
• early repayment of the loan is prohibited;
• the resident borrower will be able to pay interest on such loans (in particular, at the expense of the purchased currency);
  repayment of the principal amount of the loan (within the balance of the maximum amount of the "loan" limit) is allowed at the expense of the own foreign currency and from the second year of using the loan also at the expense of the purchased foreign currency.

Secondly, domestic sellers and manufacturers of goods will be able to transfer foreign currency to the accounts of individuals in foreign banks to reimburse funds for returned/undelivered goods.

The conditions for the relevant transactions are as follows:

• the refund will be made to the account of the individual consumer from which the payment for the goods was made;
• the amount of the refund in the currency of payment must not exceed the cost of the goods at the time of their purchase;
• the seller/manufacturer refunds the goods in the manner and within the time limits stipulated by the requirements of the Law of Ukraine “On Consumer Rights Protection”.

The amendments will ensure equal conditions for individual consumers of goods purchased in Ukraine, which will support the attractiveness of Ukrainian producers. At the same time, this will not create additional demand for foreign currency - it will be offset by the sale of foreign currency that came to Ukraine when purchasing goods.

Thirdly, the peculiarities of regulating foreign exchange transactions are being clarified.

In order to implement the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1209-r dated November 5, 2025, the NBU introduced several measures in the field of currency supervision over the deadlines for payments for the export of goods, namely:

- stipulated that the requirements for deadlines for settlements will not apply to goods exported under a foreign economic agreement under which the right of claim has been transferred to PJSC Export Credit Agency (ECA) for the amount of insurance indemnity paid by ECA to the exporter of goods. This measure will contribute to the achievement of the main goal of the establishment and functioning of the ECA - to stimulate the export of products, works and services of Ukrainian origin;

- removed the export of insurance services from the list of transactions subject to the requirement to comply with the deadlines for settlements. In this way, the NBU has unified currency regulation of insurance transactions with the regulation for other financial services, which are not subject to settlement deadlines.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in May 2025, the NBU expanded the format of liberalization measures by adding incentive liberalization measures to the list of measures to stimulate liberalization. The aim of this approach is to facilitate the inflow of additional capital into the Ukrainian economy through the incentives provided by the policy of easing currency restrictions.

As of now, businesses can carry out operations critical to their development within the "investment" and "donation" limits. the "investment" limit is equal to the amount of funds raised from abroad in foreign currency in the authorized capital of enterprises from May 10, 2025. The "donation" limit is calculated as the amount of funds transferred by the company since August 7, 2025 to a special account of the NBU to raise funds to support the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Since January 14, 2026, the "loan" limit has also been in effect.