Business expects further currency liberalization in 2026 – EBA

Ukrainian businesses expect further liberalization in 2026, according to the findings of the third stage of the European Business Association (EBA) survey on the current need to ease currency restrictions.

The most pressing issues for businesses are:

• dividend payments (including those accumulated until 2023),
• repayment of external loans,
• and increasing corporate card limits.

Most of the companies surveyed (83%) do not currently use the «incentive liberalization» mechanism and do not plan to do so. At the same time, 10% are only planning to resort to it, and only 7% are already using it. Regarding the amount of funds raised or planned by the end of 2025, 86% of respondents did not carry out such transactions. However, among those who use the mechanism, 7% of companies operate with amounts ranging from €500,000 to €1 million or more than €2 million. The trend remains similar for 2026: 83% of businesses do not plan to use the mechanism, 7% are considering amounts up to €100,000, another 7% are targeting more than €2 million, and 3% are planning transactions between €500,000 and €1 million.

As for the most pressing issue, 47% of companies consider the need to pay dividends for the period up to 2023 to be relevant (33% of them consider it extremely relevant). In 2024, 69% of companies considered the need to be able to pay dividends for the period up to 2024 to be relevant. Satisfactory payment schedules: over €2 million/quarter (20%), €100,000–2 million/quarter (30%). Dividend payments to non-residents for the period from 2023 in the amount of €2 million to €9 million/quarter are relevant for 30%.

As for loan payments to non-residents (“old” debts), compared to 2024 (51%), in 2025 the share of companies for which this issue is relevant increased to 60% (for 43% – extremely relevant). The most requested range is €100,000–2 million per quarter (53%), but 10% of respondents need to be able to pay more than €2 million per quarter.

In addition, Ukrainian companies emphasize the following necessary steps in the context of currency liberalization:

• clarification of the provisions of NBU Resolution No. 18 to avoid discrimination in the payment of dividends to companies that have undergone reorganization (transformation from a joint-stock company to a limited liability company);
• Permitting transfers for goods and services without documentary evidence within the limit of UAH 400,000, which will significantly reduce the administrative burden on businesses and banks.
• allowing representative offices to make transfers to parent companies (up to €1 million/month) and pay taxes to foreign jurisdictions (up to €30,000/year).
• lifting the ban on settlements under guarantees provided and currency risk hedging transactions:
• permission to fulfill obligations under surety agreements (lease), repayment of debt for imports in 2022 and services/guarantees until February 23, 2021, as well as payment of overdue interest on loans to parent structures.

The survey was conducted from November 2025 to January 2026 among EBA member companies, with 30 companies participating.

As a reminder, on January 14, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) eased a number of currency restrictions and clarified the specifics of currency regulation in order to support the work of Ukrainian businesses. In particular, the regulator is introducing a new incentive “borrowing” limit to increase the flexibility of domestic enterprises in managing funds attracted from abroad, creating a regulatory basis for facilitating the restructuring of old external loans.