Soon Ukrainian refugees will be able to exchange hryvnia in cash into euros in Austria and Slovakia, and into Polish zlotys in Poland

Ukrainians who have fled their homeland due to the war with large amounts of hryvnia in cash are experiencing significant problems abroad, as currently there is no opportunity to exchange Ukrainian currency into euros or local currencies in Europe. Banks are not willing to accept it as the Ukrainian currency market is paralyzed, and hryvnia is not traded at the moment. However, the situation is improving.

The National Bank of Poland is launching a program that will allow Ukrainians in Poland to exchange hryvnia in cash for Polish zlotys from the middle of next week. For this purpose, the central bank is cooperating with the country’s largest lender, PKO BP, to allow the almost 2 million refugees who have fled Ukraine for Poland to convert hryvnia. Banknotes in denominations of 100, 200, 500, and 1000 hryvnias will be exchanged for a total amount of up to 10,000 hryvnias per person at PKO BP branches.

In Austria, RBI and the Raiffeisen Landesbanken are launching the service of exchanging cash hryvnias into euros throughout the country. First transactions were successfully carried out in Vienna. This service will be rolled out nationwide in the coming days, RBI said this week. The bank is also working with its network banks in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania to enable the exchange of hryvnia into the respective national currency there as well.

Also, according to Denník N, Slovak newspaper, within two weeks, Ukrainian refugees will be able to exchange hryvnia in cash for euros in banks in Slovakia. The first bank to offer this opportunity will be Tatra Banka.