On 15 March 2016, the National Bank of Ukraine issued general licenses for foreign exchange transactions (currency exchange operations) to four non-bank financial institutions (NFIS).

Licenses were granted to the following companies:

• Financial company Partner LLC;
• Financial company Golden Group LLC;
• DSD Finance LLC;
• Inome Group LLC.

On 29 December 2015, the NBU issued a series of resolutions. In particular, the NBU set new capital requirements for non-banking financial institutions obliged them to disclose information on their ownership structure. The NFIs that were granted  general licenses before the resolutions came into force are allowed a transition period until 1 July 2016 to comply with new capital and security requirements.

At the time of the entry into force of these resolutions, the documents submitted by 9 non-bank financial institutions seeking to obtain a license for foreign exchange operations were under consideration by the NBU.  The documents submitted by the NFIs failed  to meet the new requirements. However, the NBU has decided not to reject their applications for licenses and grant them extra time until 1 March 2016 to finalize their documents. Four companies have already met the requirements and obtained licenses. The documents submitted by three more companies are expected to be approved in the coming days.

Presently, 21 NFIs hold general licenses for foreign exchange operations (currency exchange operations).  As of 16 March 2016, they had 2,327 structural subdivisions, which was by 17% more than at the beginning of the year.