In line with requirements of the Law of Ukraine On Currency and Currency Operations (hereinafter the Currency Law), the National Bank of Ukraine has introduced a procedure for exchanging information by authorized institutions about hryvnia accounts of their nonresident customers or users. To this end, the NBU has developed the Register of Nonresidents’ Accounts (hereinafter the Register), an automated information system on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain platform.
As previously reported, according to the Currency Law, a transfer of hryvnias involving a nonresident is an FX transaction subject to currency supervision. In the absence of information about the payee's residence, an authorized institution servicing the payer’s account cannot clearly identify whether such a transaction is an FX transaction. This poses a risk that such an institution will be unable to perform its functions as a currency supervision agent.
Therefore, the Register is required to minimize the aforementioned risks and improve the conditions for currency supervision by authorized institutions of hryvnia transactions conducted by nonresidents through these institutions.
In order to fulfill the requirements of the Currency Law, the NBU has:
- regulated the procedure for exchanging information by authorized institutions regarding nonresidents’ hryvnia accounts opened with said institutions using the Register
- required the authorized institutions to submit to the Register information about all bank or payment accounts opened with these institutions and held by nonresidents
- enabled an authorized institution to obtain, when performing its functions of a currency supervision agent, free-of-charge information from the Register on the ownership of the hryvnia account by a nonresident.
The information about nonresidents’ accounts will be stored in the Register using a cryptographic hash function, without the possibility of reading information about the customer's account.
The Register will be fully operational from 1 October 2023, allowing the authorized institutions to obtain information on whether hryvnia accounts held by nonresidents are bank or payment accounts.
The introduction of the Register will help expand the authorized institutions’ toolkit for conducting currency supervision of FX transactions in hryvnias.
The abovementioned provisions are set forth in the new Regulation On Exchanging Information about Nonresidents’ Hryvnia Accounts by Authorized Institutions. The document was approved by NBU Board Resolution No. 72 On Approval of the Regulation On Exchanging Information about Nonresidents’ Hryvnia Accounts by Authorized Institutions and Amendments to Regulation On Currency Supervision dated 30 May 2023, which is effective from 1 June2023.