International transfers: limits, timing, risks

The rules on moving money across the Ukrainian border changed on 11 August 2026. This guide covers what you can actually send and receive, how long it takes, and why transfers may get held up.

Please note that all figures are current as of the publication date. Currency limits have changed three times this year, so check the latest information with the NBU and your bank before acting.

What changed on 11 August 2026 and why it’s important

The National Bank eased the currency rules on 11 August. It’s the biggest change since the restrictions started. What’s new for individuals:

• Buying currency. You can now buy up to 200,000 UAH worth a month, up from 50,000.
• Cash from FX accounts. Up to 200,000 UAH a day, double the old limit. It works in Ukraine and abroad.
• Paying for things abroad. You can now do it by transferring from an FX account, not just by card, up to 200,000 UAH per month.
• Rent abroad. Now covered by the existing 500,000 UAH monthly accommodation limit, by card or transfer.

Businesses got more room, too: hryvnia corporate cards abroad now allow 140,000 UAH per month in cash and 400,000 UAH for purchases, and daily cash withdrawals in Ukraine doubled to 200,000 UAH.

One part of the package starts on 1 September instead, but it’s a technical rule about how banks calculate their currency position. It doesn’t affect your transfers.

The rules were amended, but not rewritten. Everything Resolution No. 18 prohibits remains prohibited, including sending money abroad to buy securities. Limits are bigger, but overall rules are still the same. 

Sending money out of Ukraine

Three separate factors determine if your transfer goes through. The National Bank determines what’s permitted at all. Your own bank has its own limits on top, which are usually lower. And some transfers are just prohibited.

The NBU limits

These are the limits set by the state. The most current numbers are:

• 200,000 UAH a month – buying non-cash foreign currency. Within the same limit, you may also buy non-cash bank metals and securities of foreign issuers
• 200,000 UAH a day – withdrawing cash from an FX account, in Ukraine or abroad
• 200,000 UAH a month – paying for goods, works, services, and rent abroad from a hryvnia account, by card or by transfer
• 200,000 UAH a month – transfers from an FX account to a foreign recipient’s account
• 500,000 UAH a month – accommodation abroad, including long-term rent, by card or via SWIFT
• 30,000 UAH equivalent – per operation through urgent money transfer systems

But you also need to keep in mind three things: 

• The limit on buying currency is a different limit from the one on paying for services abroad. Using one doesn’t reduce the other.
• Monthly and daily limits reset. A transfer refused today because you’ve hit the ceiling may go through next month with nothing else changed.
• Card payments from FX accounts stay unrestricted. You can still pay for most goods and services abroad by card from an FX account without a limit. The restrictions are harder when moving money into an account than when spending it.

Your bank’s limits are different

The NBU defines what’s legally permitted, but your bank says what it will actually process. In December 2024, the largest banks signed a Memorandum on transparency in the payment services market, which was updated on 14 May 2026 and is now signed by 31 banks. It sets card transfer limits that no law requires:

• Up to 100,000 UAH a month for clients assessed as low or medium risk
• Up to 50,000 UAH a month for clients assessed as high risk

But these limits apply where the client cannot document their income. Clients who can, salaried employees, registered volunteers, and anyone with confirmed income sources are unaffected. 

The limit is there, but it’s not about the amount, it’s about whether the bank can see where your money came from. 

Keep in mind these:

• Each bank decides its own risk approach. The Memorandum defines a common framework, but every bank applies it under its own policy. Two banks can classify the same client differently.
• Your risk level can change without notice. If a bank detects any activity it deems unusual, it may move you up a tier without notifying you. 
• Documentation matters. If the limit is bothering you, you can provide source-of-funds documentation, and the bank may lift the restrictions. 

There’s also one exclusion: transfers between your own accounts within the same bank don’t count towards these limits.

What no limit covers

Some transfers are just blocked even if you’re still within limits: 

• Card payments to brokers. Payments to merchant category 6211 (securities brokers and dealers) are blocked for cards issued by Ukrainian banks. 
• The e-limit. This is the mechanism that lets you send up to €200,000 a year abroad for investment, your own foreign accounts, loans, and life insurance. Some banks say transfers under it have been suspended since February 2022. Others still describe it as working. 

Everything here is accurate as of the publication date. Be sure to check before making any decisions. 

How the main banks handle it

Every bank follows NBU rules, but what they charge you and what they demand of you vary. Let’s look at this based on the three biggest banks most people use. 

PrivatBank

What are you allowed to send money for? Under martial law, the bank lists eight permitted purposes for individuals:

• Critical import goods for defence (such as drones, body armour)
• Medical treatment abroad, patient transport, and expenses following a death abroad
• Tuition to foreign educational institutions – no amount limit
• Alimony
• Goods, works, services, and rent from a hryvnia account – 200,000 UAH a month, shared with your hryvnia card spending abroad
• Goods, works and services from an FX account – 200,000 UAH a month
• Rent abroad from an FX account – 500,000 UAH a month, shared with FX card spending
• Conference and congress participation – €1,000 equivalent per event

There’s also a fee – 0.5% of the amount, minimum 5 UAH, maximum $100, plus $12 charged in hryvnia at the NBU rate. Waived entirely since April 2022 for army support and medical treatment.

If you choose the FUL fee option, the recipient gets the full amount with no correspondent bank deductions. It costs $26.50 and works only for dollar transfers. That’s the fix for the popular problem like “I sent €500, and they received €467”.

All PrivatBank SWIFT transfers run on GPI. The bank says funds arrive within 24 hours, and 40% are credited within five minutes.

The transfer is credited in the payment currency without conversion, provided your card is in that currency. If not, it converts at PrivatBank’s rate.

The bank recommends “приватний переказ” (private transfer) from individuals and “зарплата” (salary) or similar from companies, and advises against referencing invoices or contracts, since SWIFT here covers only non-commercial operations.

And no matter what, you can’t send or receive money from 25 countries, including Russia, Belarus, and Iran, and residents of those countries can’t send or receive either.

Monobank

Sending SWIFT abroad costs nothing – no bank commission, for individuals or businesses. That’s a bit unusual, and it’s the main reason people pick Monobank for outgoing transfers. 

Domestic SWIFT still costs money, though – 0.5% plus $12, up to $90. Only cross-border is free. Receiving is free on everything. SWIFT usually arrives the same day, or the next if you send it in the afternoon.

Card-to-card transfers abroad reach 45 countries – most of Europe, plus the US, Canada, Turkey, and Israel. You choose whether the recipient gets hryvnia, dollars, or euros. But there are limits:

• 30,000 UAH equivalent per transfer (per NBU rule)
• 5 transfers a week, 10 a month
• Instant if the recipient’s card supports it, otherwise up to 3 days

There’s also SEPA for receiving euros. It’s free, but it only works on a euro card. Same or next day, sometimes up to five.

Western Union works both ways: receiving is free, but sending is charged at Western Union’s rates. Sending from credit funds adds 3-4% depending on your card. There are also limits on receiving: 2 per day, 5 per week, 10 per month, and 300,000 UAH per month total.

MoneyGram and Ria are receive-only, and both are free. MoneyGram allows 20 per month, and Ria has no count limit. Both limit a single international money transfer to Ukraine to $10,000 or €7,000.

Payoneer arrives within 15 minutes to a personal card or ФОП (sole proprietorship) account, in dollars or euros, with a Payoneer fee of up to 3% plus $1.

Oschadbank

You can send a SWIFT payment without opening a current account at all, up to 400,000 UAH equivalent in a single working day, with no supporting documents. Above that, you need an account or a card.

But there aren’t many permitted purposes: 

• Medical treatment abroad, patient transport, and expenses following a death abroad, including repatriation and burial
• Mobilisation and other national security and defence needs defined by law
• Tuition paid to educational institutions

The bank adds a broader list drawn from the NBU’s martial law resolution, including internships abroad and related costs, alimony, and transfers by non-residents of currency purchased with payments received upon the death of a serviceman.

The fee for sending is 1% of the amount, with a minimum of $15 and a maximum of $500, for transfers with or without an account, but not from card accounts.

Receiving is free if you collect the payment without crediting it to a current or card account. If credited to an account, it follows your tariff plan. There’s also a 1% charge, with a minimum of $5, on some transfers received without an account.

Oschadbank was the first Ukrainian bank on SWIFT GPI. Half of the payments arrive within 30 minutes, and almost all within 24 hours, at no extra charge.

What do banks have in common

Different banks may charge different fees, but they all follow the same rules set by the NBU. That said, the permitted purposes are set by the regulator, not by the bank. If your reason isn’t on that list, no bank will process the transfer.

All banks want proof of what the money is for and where it came from. The bank with the lowest fee will still refuse you without them. Said fees aren’t the whole cost. SWIFT transfers to Ukraine pass through correspondent banks that take their own cut, so the amount received can be less than the advertised amount. Though some banks let you pay a fixed charge to guarantee the recipient receives the full sum.

Receiving money in Ukraine

Receiving money is much easier than sending it abroad. For example, the NBU limits mentioned apply to sending, not receiving. Let’s get to it in more detail. 

From family

Money from close relatives isn’t taxed. This includes parents, children, spouses, siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren, first- and second-degree.

Money from anyone else counts as income. A friend, an unmarried partner, a distant cousin: that’s foreign income at 18% plus the 5% military levy. PrivatBank says so on its own site – the bank withholds nothing, you declare it yourself, converted at the NBU rate on the day it arrives.

But how do you even send money to Ukraine from the EU? Here are a few methods:

• SWIFT works from any bank, in any currency. It’s the standard method, but slow and pricey – fees of €10-50 and up to five working days.
• SEPA is cheaper and faster for euros. Ukraine isn’t a SEPA member yet, so this works through partner arrangements: some Ukrainian banks provide you with a European IBAN and credit the funds. Monobank receives from 30+ countries, including Poland and Germany, for free, but only onto a euro card. This is the fastest way to send money to Ukraine. 
• Transfer services like Wise, TransferGo, and Revolut usually beat banks on the exchange rate. 
• Cash pickup via Western Union, MoneyGram, or Ria works if the recipient has no card. Monobank caps Western Union receipts at 300,000 UAH per month.
• Be sure to save paperwork. If the tax exemption ever needs proving, a birth or marriage certificate is what does it.

From clients or an employer abroad

This means business income, and the rules are obviously different from those for family transfers. 

First rule: don’t accept payments into your personal account. Taking payment for work on a personal card is common and legally wrong. It draws attention from the bank and the tax office and can result in your money being frozen. PrivatBank states clearly that SWIFT transfers to a personal account are for non-commercial payments only.

If you want to accept such payments, you need a ФОП (sole proprietorship) currency account, opened in your business name.

But Group 2 can’t work with foreign clients because a Group 2 ФОП (sole proprietorship) may only serve the general public and other single taxpayers – and the tax office has confirmed that “the public” means people under Ukrainian jurisdiction. Which means foreign clients don’t count. You can sell them goods, but not services. Freelancers need group 3.

What if you paid through Payoneer? The tax office says your income arises the day the money reaches Payoneer, not the day it reaches your Ukrainian bank, and the money is converted at the NBU rate for that date.

Two things worth knowing:

• You no longer have to sell your foreign currency – the requirement was abolished, so you convert only if you want to. 
• The 180-day payment deadline doesn’t apply to services, only goods and transport, so a slow client costs you nothing.

What banks watch

The legal threshold is 400,000 UAH, and at or above that amount, the bank must properly verify the transaction and establish the source of the funds. 

Most blocks, though, happen well below it. Banks build a profile of each client based on declared income, occupation, and transaction history, and anything that looks out of place is reviewed regardless of the amount. In practice, that means regular incoming money when you have no official income, lots of small payments from many different senders, money that arrives and leaves again almost immediately, payments from countries you have no obvious connection to, or cash deposited and withdrawn straight after.

Splitting a large sum into smaller ones doesn’t work. In August 2026, the National Bank wrote to banks about clients breaking currency exchanges into several sub-threshold amounts over a few days, and banks are now expected to spot exactly that.

It’s also worth remembering that 400,000 is the threshold at which checking becomes mandatory by law, not when your bank starts paying attention. Most banks have their own limits, and they’re usually lower than that. If the bank can see and verify your income, it significantly lowers the risk. 

How money can get to you from abroad

Receiving is where Ukraine still has plenty of options, even though sending through these systems stopped under martial law. SWIFT works with any bank in any currency, and all three major Ukrainian banks credit incoming transfers free of charge; however, the cost falls on the sender.

Oschadbank works with RIA, Intel Express, Western Union, MoneyGram, Monego, and SWIFT, the widest set of any Ukrainian bank, and you can collect straight onto a card in euros, dollars, or hryvnia through its app. Monobank receives funds through Western Union, MoneyGram, and Ria, all free, though Western Union receipts are capped at 300,000 UAH per month, and the other two limit a single transfer to $10,000 or €7,000.

SEPA is the cheapest method for euros, but Ukraine hasn’t joined SEPA yet, so banks offering it work through partner arrangements – you get a European IBAN, the money goes there, and it’s credited. Monobank receives this way from more than 30 countries, free, but only onto a euro card.

For freelancers, Payoneer and Wise remain the best choice, crediting within minutes.

How long transfers actually take

It depends on the method you use:

• SWIFT is the slowest and least predictable. It usually takes 1 to 5 business days, and for some banks, that’s still the case. But GPI has changed things: PrivatBank says its transfers arrive within 24 hours, with 40% arriving within five minutes, and Oschadbank reports that half arrive within half an hour. Monobank usually processes same-day, or next-day if you send in the afternoon. 
• SEPA is more consistent – usually same or next day, occasionally up to five if intermediaries get involved.
• Card transfers are usually instant, or up to three days if the recipient’s card doesn’t support them. Cash pickup through Western Union, MoneyGram, or Ria is the fastest option, often ready within minutes. Payoneer takes about fifteen.

Delays usually happen because of “natural” reasons, including weekends and holidays in either country, currency conversion, or a vague payment purpose. Compliance review is the exception – a transfer pulled for checking doesn’t go through until someone gets to it.

Why transfers get blocked, and how to reduce the risk

Both the EU and Ukrainian banks can block transfers. Here are the most common reasons: 

• Ukrainian banks block transfers mostly due to financial monitoring: activity that doesn’t fit your client profile, income the bank can’t trace, or a sum crossing the 400,000 UAH threshold without explanation.
• EU banks block transfers because of sanctions screening. Major European banks scan every payment against more than 30 sanctions lists at once – UN, EU, OFAC, UK and others – and a partial name match stops the payment automatically. For Ukrainian names written in Latin script, this is a real problem: Oleksandr, Alexander, and Aleksandr are the same name transliterated differently, and any of them can collide with a sanctioned person. 

It also happens more than once per transfer – a cross-border payment passes through several institutions, and each applies its own controls, so clearing your own bank doesn’t mean the correspondent will agree. Some banks have cut correspondent relationships with higher-risk jurisdictions entirely, which is why a method that worked last year may not work now.

The EBA published two sets of sanctions guidelines, one for all financial institutions and one specifically for payment providers handling transfers of funds, both applying from 30 December 2025.

In June 2026 the EU Court of Justice ruled that a bank can’t refuse someone a basic payment account purely because they appear on a third-country sanctions list like OFAC’s. The listing can be one factor in the risk assessment, but not the whole reason, and any refusal has to rest on a documented individual assessment. It covers personal accounts only, not business ones.

To reduce the risk: write a specific payment purpose rather than “transfer” or “payment”, make sure names match your documents exactly including transliteration, have proof of where the money came from ready before you send, and tell your bank in advance if the amount is large or unusual for you. If it’s blocked anyway, ask in writing what exactly is needed – the answer is usually a document you can work around.