With the aim of accumulating international reserves, the National Bank plans to launch regular fx purchase auctions in the near future. A months-long period of FX market stabilization, as well as the expected substantial inflow of foreign exchange earnings from agricultural exports of this year's harvest, enabled the National Bank of Ukraine to purchase foreign exchange without creating downside risks to the hryvnia exchange rate.

FX will be purchased by the regulator in small amounts. “The NBU is set to purchase up to USD 10 million per day. In other words, the regulator may purchase, for instance, USD 5-7 million depending on the amount offered by FX auction participants at a competitive price,” explained Director of the NBU Open Market Operations Department Serhii Ponomarenko. This will enable us to avoid exerting downward pressures on the hryvnia exchange rate”.

These auctions are intended to be open to all banks. They will be offered an opportunity to submit bids quoting different exchange rates. The bids shall be satisfied by the National Bank in the following order starting from the lowest and moving to the highest selling exchange rate of the hryvnia relative to foreign currencies.  This said, the regulator shall retain the right to declare the auction as failed if banks fall short of submitting reasonable bids.

Details of the auctions, including the date, time, purchase amount will be published shortly before the auction.

Since the beginning of 2015, the National Bank of Ukraine has purchased USD 1.3 billion.