In order to improve and ensure the efficient operation of banking and financial institutions in conducting currency exchange transactions in the cash segment of the interbank foreign exchange market of Ukraine, on April 30, 2014, the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine passed Resolution No. 249 approving amendments to some NBU regulations (hereinafter – Resolution No. 249) registered by Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice on May 7, 2014, as No. 480/25257, whereby a new wording of the Instruction on the Procedure for Arranging and Carrying out Currency Exchange Operations within the Territory of Ukraine” has been approved.

Resolution No. 249, inter alia, shall set out details of currency exchange transactions:

• a document proving identity and residency is required when a bank sells cash foreign exchange to individuals in an amount not exceeding UAH 15,000 (in equivalent) (as before, copies of documents must be kept at the bank);
• when a bank purchases cash foreign exchange from individuals in an amount not exceeding UAH 150,000 (in equivalent) or carries out currency exchange transactions, it shall issue  a currency exchange receipt containing the customer's name, surname and patronymic. No document proving identity and residency is required;
• when cash foreign exchange is purchased by a bank from a non-resident individual, issuance of a certificate confirming the currency exchange transaction is not obligatory upon the customer's consent;
• currency conversion transactions (the exchange of one currency for another) and the purchase of foreign exchange from individuals in an amount exceeding UAH 150, 000 shall be carried out by the bank in compliance with the requirements set forth in the Law of Ukraine on Prevention and Counteraction to Legalization (Laundering) of the Proceeds of Crime or Terrorist Financing, which require the identification of customers.

In addition, the bank is no longer obliged to carry out additional checks to verify a customer's identity when conducting currency exchange transactions if this customer's identity has already been verified and his/her personal information is stored in the bank's customer database. The bank has to check whether the customer's personal details that had been entered into the bank's customer database are the same as in the identity document produced by the customer. Once the customer identification process has been completed, the bank is obliged to indicate the reference number assigned to the bank account contract or the bank account number in the receipt issued to the customer.

Resolution envisages changes to the operating procedures, infrastructure, and the physical layout of financial institutions when currency exchange transactions are being conducted therein. The amendments provide for the following:

• the cashier's desk should be positioned in such a way as to enable the customer watch the process of counting cash money;
• by the end of 2014, the physical layout of the bank cash department, the financial institution, and the currency exchange office should be re-arranged in such a way so that it would meet the requirements set forth in NBU regulations on technical conditions and security arrangements at bank branches;
• banks are required to install special software allowing the bank to exercise control over the volume and value of currency exchange transactions conducted by a legal entity within the bank, the financial institution;
• the currency exchange receipt form has been standardized and simplified. 

Resolution No. 249 lifts the requirement to register currency exchange offices at the regional branch of the National Bank of Ukraine. Instead, a currency exchange office is obliged to notify the NBU regional branch that it has started its operation.

As before, the exchange rates (bid and ask) of foreign currencies against the hryvnia are set by the chairman of the bank management board at the beginning of the business day and remains unchanged throughout the business day. It is forbidden to impose restrictions on the face value, physical condition of banknotes, and the year of issuance.  

Resolution No. 249 comes into force 15 days after its official publication (It is being prepared for publication in the information bulletin "Ofitsiyniy Visnyk Ukrayiny" ("Official Herald of Ukraine") on May 23, 2014.