OREANDA-NEWS. March 10, 2010. The NBU placed a ban on commercial banks buying foreign currency in order to pay back their clients’ foreign currency deposits. Commercial banks are now allowed to buy currency only for the purpose of paying interest on such deposits. The decision applies only to deposit accounts opened after 9 March 2010.

Millennium Capital sees the news to be slightly negative for commercial banks, since it will decrease their receipts from foreign exchange trading, which constituted 4% in banks’ net operational income (UAH 72.2bn) in 2009. This decision minimizes the influence of commercial banks on the exchange rate fluctuations, since NBU tightened the requirements on currency positions and currency loan reserves for commercial banks in 2009.