National Bank: Several foreign players may enter Ukraine's forex market

Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleh Churiy says the regulator expects several foreign players to come to the Ukrainian foreign exchange market this year after foreign banks were allowed to trade among themselves in Ukraine's national currency, the hryvnia.

"We expect that by the end of the year five or six foreign banks will enter the market and start [forex] trading," he said at a February 13 meeting with business representatives in the European Business Association (EBA), commenting on the NBU's decision to allow foreign banks to trade with each other in hryvnias via correspondent accounts in Ukrainian banks.

According to Churiy, the move will definitely increase liquidity of Ukraine's currency market, its trading volumes, and attractiveness to foreign investors.

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As UNIAN reported earlier, the National Bank allowed foreign banks to freely settle in hryvnias with other overseas banks on currency purchase/sale transactions under agreements sealed beyond Ukraine using correspondent accounts with Ukrainian banks

Since January 1, 2020, non-residents' investment in Ukraine's government domestic loan bonds has increased by 7.2%, or UAH 8.3 billion (US$339 million), to UAH 124.1 billion (US$5.1 billion).

In order to purchase Ukrainian government bonds, non-residents used to bring to Ukraine an appropriate amount of currency that was sold on the country's interbank forex market.