In Ukraine, banks will reduce limits on transfers

In Ukraine, banks will reduce limits on transfers

Ukrainian banks will set transfer limits ranging from 50 to 150 thousand hryvnias per month starting February 1.

Today, at the National Bank, banks officially signed a Memorandum on establishing general principles of financial monitoring concerning individuals and entrepreneurs, as well as on imposing limits on customer transactions from February 1, 2025, depending on the client category when opening an account without proven sources of income.

We reported on this draft decision yesterday.

Today, the Memorandum was signed by PrivatBank, Oschadbank, Raiffeisen Bank, and Universalbank. However, other banks and non-banking financial institutions are expected to join them soon.

According to the new rules, for high-risk clients, typically including the unemployed, students, and so on, the lowest limit of 50 thousand UAH per month will be set. For other clients with low and medium risk:

• 150 thousand UAH — from February 1, 2025;

• 100 thousand UAH — from June 1, 2025.

This information is presented in a joint press release by the signatory banks.

The main difference from the draft document is the start date of the limits, which was moved from January 1 to February 1, 2025.

Other key principles remained unchanged.

If a client wants to increase the limit above 150 thousand UAH, they will need to provide the bank with a certificate, declaration, or other document confirming income over 150 thousand UAH. Then, their maximum payment amount will be increased to the level of official earnings.

All transfers, both p2p and IBAN, will be included in the limit calculation.

The official release also mentions the banks’ plans to establish direct access to state online services (Diya) to obtain information about clients’ incomes and their legal cases. There are also plans for banks to create a "drop" registry, where information about suspicious clients will be sent. Once in this registry, it will be difficult for a person to open a bank account—they will be denied.

During the signing of the Memorandum, the head of the National Bank stated that one of the goals of this document is to increase tax payment discipline.

"We have a common goal — to reduce the share of the shadow economy in the country to increase state budget revenues through tax payments," emphasized Pyshnyi.