The National Bank of Ukraine further tightened restrictions on Ukrainians’ transactions abroad

Starting May 10, 2025, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has significantly tightened restrictions on card payments made by individuals abroad. Under the new NBU Resolution No. 53, a monthly limit of 500,000 UAH (approximately €10,700) has been introduced for eight additional categories of foreign payments made with currency cards.

The new restrictions apply to the following categories:

• Advertising services (merchant or MCC code 7311)

• Management, consulting, and public relations (7392)

• Business services not classified elsewhere (7399)

• Legal services and lawyers (8111)

• Accounting and auditing services (8931)

• Professional services not elsewhere classified (8999)

• Government services not elsewhere classified (9399)

• Miscellaneous personal services not elsewhere classified (7299)

The NBU first introduced the 500,000 UAH limit on September 10, 2024, specifically for payments related to real estate agents and managers abroad. Now, the same limit applies collectively to all nine listed payment categories — not individually, but combined.

Since September 2024, a separate monthly limit of 100,000 UAH (≈€2,140) has also applied to purchases of:

• Precious stones and metals (payment code 5094)

• Jewelry, watches, silverware (5944)

• Coins and stamps (5972)

These limits only affect foreign transactions made with currency cards, which had previously been unrestricted before September 2024.

From the beginning of the full-scale war, the NBU imposed strict restrictions on overseas spending from hryvnia (UAH) cards, including:

• Payments for goods and services abroad — up to 100,000 UAH/month

• ATM withdrawals abroad — up to 12,500 UAH/week and 50,000 UAH/month

• P2P transfers from currency cards — up to 100,000 UAH/month

“The expansion of the 500,000 UAH limit to nine categories can only be explained by their popularity. The NBU sees where the dollars and euros are flowing and is cutting off those routes,” a deputy chairman of a systemic bank told Strana.ua. “They likely consider these payments to be part of schemes rather than essential needs. Although everyone understands that real schemers have already moved to cryptocurrencies, the NBU still tries to block the trails.”

At the same time, the NBU has slightly eased some currency restrictions for businesses:

• Weekly cash withdrawal limit abroad using business-linked hryvnia cards has been raised from 12,500 UAH (≈€270) to 17,500 UAH (≈€375)

• Monthly limit for goods/services payments from such cards raised from 100,000 UAH to 150,000 UAH (≈€3,210)

These changes apply only to corporate cards, not personal ones. The NBU also allowed Ukrainian companies to freely pay for registration services, legal services, forward contracts, and similar transactions abroad.