Mobile banking apps offer better terms for currency purchases than street exchange booths
Experts advise using mobile banking applications for the most attractive currency exchange rates. Such conditions are created by intense competition between financial institutions for customers. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine (Ірина Гамерська) citing Serhiy Mamedov, according to the portal PromPolitInform.
Chairman of the Board of Globus Bank Serhiy Mamedov noted that many banks set online currency purchase rates that can be even lower than market ones. Financial institutions compensate for losses from such operations through commission income from future cashless card payments.
Pricing in exchange booths
Cash exchange booths usually offer worse rates than the official figures of the National Bank of Ukraine. This is due to the need to cover costs for logistics and physical replenishment of cash registers with physical currency.
To ensure cash availability, banks purchase currency on the interbank market or from the public, accounting for their own margin and collection costs. There is currently no shortage of physical currency in the country, as the NBU promptly responds to demand and supports the financial system when necessary.
Currency limits and prospects
Currently, restrictions are in place: citizens have the right to purchase non-cash currency online up to 200,000 hryvnias per month. It is also permitted to make foreign transfers within the equivalent of 100,000 hryvnias.
According to Serhiy Mamedov, such limits are sufficient for the needs of the majority of Ukrainians. Capital outflow control measures remain appropriate during the war, but in the future, the state will have to gradually lift them to stimulate foreign investment.
Illustrative photo: Torsten Dettlaff / CC BY-SA 4.0
