KYIV, May 24 – The daily volume of transactions abroad with hryvnia cards issued in Ukraine is about $100 million, putting significant pressure on the country's reserves, Oleksiy Lupin, the director of the NBU's open markets department, said.

We have $ 100 million outflow on cards every day," he wrote on Facebook.

From May 21, 2022, the National Bank of Ukraine lifted restrictions on setting the rate at which banks debit hryvnia funds from customer accounts if customers use hryvnia cards abroad or withdraw cash from cards.

Thus, the NBU creates opportunities for convergence of the currency conversion rate for those temporarily abroad and the cash purchase rate for citizens remaining in Ukraine," the regulator explained on Facebook.

In addition, the National Bank halved the limit for withdrawing currency from ATMs abroad from hryvnia cards to UAH 50,000.

It also minimizes ‘card tourism.’ According to available data, a significant part of operations with hryvnia cards abroad are cash withdrawals from ATMs. A significant part of this cash then returns to Ukraine and ends up on the illegal cash market. That is, de facto scarce currency resources can be spent on non-priority wartime needs, which is now extremely important to minimize," the NBU said.

In his opinion, equalization of conditions for direct (through cash transactions) and indirect (through card transactions) purchases of currency, in Ukraine and abroad, by the population is a measure that will prevent unproductive withdrawal of capital and protect Ukraine's international reserves. (om/ez)