The National Bank of Ukraine continues easing currency control restrictions

To respond to the challenges of the full-scale war, the National Bank of Ukraine (the “NBU”) introduced strict temporary currency control measures in February 2022 to stop uncontrolled capital outflows from the country. Since then, the NBU has been gradually softening these restrictions.

On 13 January 2026, the NBU adopted Resolution no.2 (and related Resolution no.3), which took effect on 14 January 2026 and introduced a new set of currency control relaxations. According to the NBU, the main goal of these changes is to support Ukrainian business while keeping the FX market and international reserves stable.

The key developments relevant for corporate clients are briefly outlined below.

Borrowing limit

Resolution no.2 introduces a new threshold within which Ukrainian residents are allowed to perform certain permitted cross-border transactions in favour of non-residents (“borrowing limit”; in Ukrainian, the term used in the resolution is гранична сума). The borrowing limit equals to the total amount of funds received after 1 January 2026 under a foreign credit/loan agreement in foreign currency to the borrower’s current account with a Ukrainian bank, minus the total amount of the principal already repaid under this credit/loan agreement.

Within this borrowing limit, a resident company may carry out the following types of transactions:

• payments for the import of goods delivered to Ukraine on any date before and including 23 February 2021;
• return to a non-resident of an advance payment received by a resident into its Ukrainian bank account on any date before and including 23 February 2022 under a cross-border contract for the sale of goods where the goods were not delivered in full or in part;
• discharge of obligations by a Ukrainian borrower under a cross-border financing agreement executed on any date before and including 20 June 2023 (where the loan was disbursed in full or in part);
• financing the costs of such resident for maintaining its branches, representative offices and other separate subdivisions abroad without establishing a separate legal entity (above the general limit set forth by the NBU already available); and
• repatriation of dividends to non-resident shareholders (again above the general limit already available).

This borrowing limit works the same way as a so-called “investment limit” introduced in May 2025. Under that earlier mechanism, a resident can make the same type of payments abroad (i.e., “old” imports and loans, maintenance of foreign branches and dividend payments) within the total amount of new foreign equity invested into such resident’s authorised capital from 12 May 2025. The “investment limit” is based on new foreign equity, while the new “borrowing limit” is based on new foreign loans. If the company is able to attract both, it may have more options to make payments to non-residents in the limited cases allowed by the NBU rules.

Importantly, transactions within the borrowing limit must meet all of the following conditions:

• any disbursement of the loan or repayment of principal under the relevant credit/loan agreement must take place on or after 1 January 2026;
• this loan is not granted by an international financial institution (IFI) and no IFI acts as a guarantor or surety under such financing;
• the loan is disbursed in FX from an account opened abroad and credited to borrower’s current account opened with a Ukrainian bank;
• all transactions under the relevant credit/loan agreement comply with the general requirements for the new foreign borrowings, including the maximum effective interest rate of 12% p.a.;
• repayment of principal (i) under short-term financing (with a tenor or up to one year), or (ii) within the 1st year of a long-term financing may be made only out of the borrower’s own FX funds (i.e., not from purchased or borrowed FX);
• the borrower may repay principal only up to the amount actually received under the loan, reduced by the total amount of transactions already carried out within the borrowing limit;
• the borrower may not make early payments under such financing (i.e., ahead of the agreed payment schedule).

All permitted transactions within the borrowing limit must be carried out exclusively through the bank servicing the relevant credit/loan agreement (with a separate procedure for changing the servicing bank, if needed).

Extension of settlement deadlines exclusions

Under Resolution no.3, the NBU has expanded the list of export operations which are not subject to settlement deadlines (i.e., the requirement to receive payment under export contracts within a fixed period of time set by the NBU).

In particular, settlement deadlines will no longer apply to export of insurance and reinsurance services. This exclusion aligns the FX regime for insurance with the regime for other financial services, where settlement deadlines do not apply.

Another important exclusion set forth by Resolution no.3 is the export of goods under the contracts insured by Private Joint-Stock Company “Export Credit Agency” (“ECA”), where the right to claim payment under the export contract has been assigned to ECA under the insurance agreement executed in accordance with Ukrainian export support legislation. The exemption applies within the amount of the insurance indemnity paid by ECA to the exporter (from the date on which the indemnity is credited to the exporter’s current account with a Ukrainian bank). Hence, if a Ukrainian exporter has insured an export contract with ECA and the foreign buyer is in breach of its payment obligations, once ECA pays insurance compensation and takes over the claim against the buyer, the bank will not treat the “missing” foreign currency proceeds (within the amount paid by ECA) as a breach of settlement deadlines. For exporters, this removes the risk of being formally in violation of FX rules.