The National Bank of Ukraine in order to prevent unfair speculation and minimize misunderstandings in the exchange of cash made changes to its “regulations” and abolished the definition of minor depreciation of banknotes, prohibiting financial institutions to refuse customers to exchange currency, if the counter or detector on the counter confirmed the authenticity of banknotes.
“This means that the cashier can’t “by eye” to assess the authenticity of banknotes or their condition and refuse to carry out a currency exchange operation because it seemed to him that the pattern or color doesn’t match somewhere. So, we completely eliminate the human factor! – NBU head Andriy Pyshny wrote on Facebook.
He stressed that representatives of banks and non-banking institutions have been conveyed the NBU’s principled position and in case of violation such actions will be regarded not only as non-compliance with NBU regulatory requirements, but also as a potential sign of fraud.
“On such facts we establish enhanced control and take adequate measures of influence,” Pyshny said.
The head of the regulator specified that the National Bank, depending on the level of the offense committed, will apply the influence measures that include fines: for banks – up to 400 thousand UAH, which will soon be increased for significant violations, for non-bank institutions – up to 5% of the equity of the institution.
Pyshnyy recalled that the NBU has not imposed any restrictions on currency exchange based on the year of issue of banknotes and its regulations expressly prohibit imposing any such restrictions.
He said that the National Bank will hold another meeting with market participants on June 21 to discuss the decision taken on Tuesday.
