On 30 September 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) disclosed a detail of its monetary operations that sounds purely technical but directly affects anyone holding hryvnia in a term deposit or savings account. The regulator explained the principle behind how it sets the volumes of its three-month limited deposit certificates — and it turns out those volumes are now tied directly to how much money a given bank has managed to attract from the public in term hryvnia deposits.
What exactly changed
Some background helps explain why this matters. NBU deposit certificates are an instrument banks use to park spare hryvnia liquidity with the central bank in exchange for interest income. Until August 2026, banks could simply apply for a three-month certificate and have their bid fully satisfied. From 7 August 2026, the NBU changed this: instead of automatically satisfying every bid, the regulator now runs interest-rate tenders with a pre-announced volume, held once every two weeks. The rate banks can bid at these tenders is capped — the key policy rate plus 3.5 percentage points. Since the key policy rate has stood at 16% per annum since 17 September 2026, the maximum yield a bank can currently earn on a three-month certificate is roughly 19.5%.
Why the tender volume now depends on depositors
Here is the actual news from 30 September: the NBU officially confirmed that each bank has its own "aggregate limit" for buying three-month certificates, and that limit grows in line with the volume of term hryvnia deposits the bank has attracted from the public. In plain terms — the more ordinary people have entrusted a bank with hryvnia deposits, the bigger the quota that bank receives to place funds into this attractive NBU instrument. The regulator is explicit about the goal: to preserve the link between how actively a bank attracts term hryvnia deposits and how much it can subsequently earn on those funds through certificates. It is an economic lever meant to push banks, right now, toward offering depositors more attractive terms rather than just sitting on standard, unremarkable rates.
What this means in practice for your hryvnia
For an ordinary reader, this means one thing: over the coming weeks and months, expect more active competition among banks for term hryvnia deposits — possibly in the form of higher rates on new deposits, promotional offers for new clients, or special terms on shorter maturities. But a bank's sharpened appetite for deposits does not automatically mean your current bank will offer you the best rate — pricing varies meaningfully between institutions, and the gap between offers can be substantial. This is a good moment to spend ten minutes checking our term deposit rankings to compare real conditions across banks rather than relying on promotional banners alone. If locking money away for a fixed term does not suit you, it is also worth checking current terms in our savings account rankings — rates there are often conditional (tied to balance or account activity) and worth re-checking periodically, since banks may revise them in response to NBU rule changes.
What about loans and everyday accounts
It helps to see the bigger picture: a 16% key policy rate and a certificate yield ceiling near 19.5% both signal that money remains expensive across the banking system. That affects not only deposits but also borrowing costs — if you are planning to take out a loan, a gap of just a few percentage points between bank offers is felt more sharply in your monthly payment right now than it would be in calmer periods, so it is worth comparing terms in our loan rankings before applying. One more practical detail: to take advantage of a better deposit rate at a different bank, you will typically need to open a current account there to transfer the funds — it is worth checking in advance whether that account carries hidden maintenance fees by checking our personal account rankings.
What to do right now
- Do not let an expiring deposit auto-renew on old terms — compare your bank's new offer against the market first.
- Look beyond the headline rate: check whether there is an early-withdrawal penalty, whether the rate is fixed for the full term, and whether there is a minimum deposit amount.
- For savings accounts, check the exact conditions under which the "base" rate actually applies — it is often tied to a minimum balance or to making no withdrawals within the month.
- Keep an eye on NBU news about upcoming tenders — volumes and terms can shift every two weeks, and bank offers are likely to move in response.
Bottom line
The NBU's technical decision to tie deposit-certificate volumes to the amount of deposits a bank attracts is a signal that competition for Ukrainians' hryvnia savings could pick up in the near term. As a saver, that is an opportunity to get better terms — but only if you actively compare offers instead of waiting for your bank to volunteer something better. Start by checking current rates in our deposit and savings account rankings — five minutes that could genuinely move the needle on what your savings earn this quarter.