The National Bank of Ukraine and the National Bank of Poland have signed an agreement that will allow Ukrainian refugees to exchange Ukrainian hryvnia for Polish zlotys.
This was reported by the NBU press service.
The agreement enters into force on 25 March. The exchange rate will be as close as possible to the official one.
Under this mechanism, adult citizens of Ukraine will be able to exchange a total of up to 10 thousand hryvnias in cash per person. Polish banks will accept banknotes with a face value of 100 to 1,000 hryvnia (lower denomination banknotes and coins will not be accepted for exchange).
Then the National Bank of Poland will buy cash hryvnia from commercial banks for further exchange with the National Bank of Ukraine at the same rate. It is noted that the NBU is ready to buy up to 10bn hryvnias to help Ukrainians.
"Many representatives of the brave Ukrainian people, fleeing criminal military aggression, came to Poland. Often they have with them only cash hryvnia (taken in a hurry), which so far could not be exchanged for zlotys. Since the first day of the war, the National Bank of Poland has been working with our friends from the NBU to solve this problem. It is important that the heroic defenders of Ukraine know that we care for their families. I am very pleased with the settlement of this very important issue for Ukrainian refugees," the Head of the Polish National Bank, Professor Adam Glapinski said.
"Thanks to the agreement, Ukrainians will be able to exchange their cash hryvnia in Polish banks to meet their living needs. We are grateful to our Polish colleagues for this humanitarian step, which further strengthens the partnership between our peoples," NBU Chairman Kyrylo Shevchenko said.
Earlier it was also reported that the NBU had signed an agreement with the National Bank of Poland on a billion-dollar currency swap.
According to UNICEF, Russia's war against Ukraine has forced more than 3.3 million Ukrainians to go abroad, and almost 6.5 million have become internally displaced. Most refugees from Ukraine came to Poland – a total of more than 2 million people.