²ÝÁñÉçÇø

Hello

Bumping this post. Anyone who can share their experience with UA banks?

What are the most stable and best bank for expats? Looking at the currency exchange rate and fees when doing an international money transfer ?

Hi Sanja. For expats it's better to use big international banks such as Raiffaisen Bank Aval, Ukrsibbank and Credit Agricole. For legal entities in Kyiv it is possible also to work with CitiBank and INGBank.
Exchange rate is connected with NBU rates and Interbank rates. It doesn't differ much from one bank to another. For small amounts in cash it's better to use street exchanges they are more flexible.
For money transfers may be it's better to use such money transfer systems such as Transferwise.

I have been with PrivatBank for a number of years now. It is the biggest in Ukraine. ATM access is available widely. The problem I had was setting up an account as a foreigner. If you are not a Ukrainian citizen you will need to get a tax number. I initially queued up at the office in Odessa but found this a lost cause on a hot, sweltering day and gave up after waiting an age. I eventually hired a lawyer to do this for me and my tax number was posted to me in the UK. You will need your passport translated for this too. When I managed to open a deposit account the interest was 23% but is now down to 16%. However, that is still a lot better than you can get in the UK. It is not easy to deposit cash into your account either. For non resident's, proof must be shown of the origin of the cash (eg. ATM receipt and the card it was withdrawn on). Online access is available through a phone number on Privat24.

Thanks for the input guys! Guess it could be a good idea to have 1 account in for example Bank Aval and another one in Privatbank (many locals seems to have this bank) and then compare them and use them for different business. Transferwise also seems interesting and I should check it out.