Effective 24 May 2022, Ukrainians who were forced to leave Ukraine due to the war and are in Germany can exchange cash hryvnias for euros. The respective agreement was signed by the NBU, Deutsche Bundesbank, and the German Ministry of Finance on 17 May.
Thus, every adult citizen of Ukraine can exchange up to UAH 10,000 in cash for euros. Hryvnia bills with a face value from 100 to 1,000 are accepted for such transactions (lower denomination banknotes and coins are not).
The exchange rate for these transactions will be published every Friday at 2 p.m. here: www.bundesbank.de/wechselkurse-uah. This rate will be in effect for one week from publication.
For more about the exchange procedure, please contact credit institutions participating in the program.
“Thanks to the agreement we have concluded with Deutsche Bundesbank and the German Ministry of Finance, Ukrainians will be able to exchange their cash hryvnias in German credit institutions. We are extremely grateful to German colleagues for their support and assistance to our displaced persons on such an important issue,” said NBU Deputy Governor Sergiy Nikolaychuk.
The NBU stands for safeguarding Ukraine’s financial defenses and prioritizes providing all Ukrainians with the capability to freely pay for goods and services and meet their needs under martial law, he said. “To this end, the NBU did not impose any restrictions on cashless payments and, in the earliest days of the war, started looking for ways to enable Ukrainians (who went abroad with only cash hryvnias) to exchange cash hryvnias for the currencies of their host countries. First, we resolved this issue jointly with Narodowy Bank Polski, the central bank of Poland, a country that has hosted over three million displaced Ukrainians, more than any other nation has,” said Sergiy Nikolaychuk.
As previously reported, from 25 March, Ukrainians can exchange up to UAH 10,000 in cash per person for Polish zlotys. Under this mechanism, the NBU has already bought almost half a billion hryvnias from Narodowy Bank Polski.
In addition, the NBU has allowed Ukrainian banks to buy cash hryvnias from foreign financial institutions for cashless foreign currency. But banks may spend no more than the equivalent of EUR 1 million per day in such transactions. This is also helping resolve the problem with the exchange of cash hryvnias by displaced individuals. According to NBU data, a number of banks have already been exchanging cash hryvnias abroad using this mechanism (including Raiffeisen Bank in Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, Erste Bank Oesterreich in Austria, OTP Bank in Moldova and Hungary, Banca Comercială Română in Romania, and Tatra banka, a Raiffeisen Group subsidiary, in Slovakia).
Meanwhile, the NBU is in active talks with the central banks of other EU countries that have also been hosting Ukrainian migrants to enable them to exchange cash hryvnias for local currencies within established limits.
The NBU also maintains constant contact with the central banks of partner countries to promptly ensure the uninterrupted acceptance and servicing of Ukrainian-issued payment cards held by migrants who were forced to leave their homes as they fled russia’s military aggression.