National Bank of Ukraine

National Bank of Ukraine
Національний банк України

National Bank of Ukraine emblem
Headquarters	9, Instytutska st, Kiev, 01601
Established	1991
Governor	Valeriya Hontareva
Central bank of	Ukraine
Currency	Hryvnia UAH (ISO 4217)
Bank rate	UAH 11.00%, FE 6.50% (March 2017)
Website	www.bank.gov.ua

National Bank of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Національний банк України) or NBU (Ukrainian: НБУ) is the central bank of Ukraine - a government body responsible for unified state policy in the field of country's monetary circulation, including strengthening of national currency unit - hryvnia. It regulates and supervises activities, functions and legal status of government and commercial banks based on principles of the Constitution of Ukraine and the law of Ukraine "About the National Bank of Ukraine".

Banking in Ukraine traces its history back to 1918 when on December 22, 1917, the Central Council of Ukraine adopted a law "On transformation of the Kiev office of the Russian State Bank into the Ukrainian State Bank". The law united all offices of the former State bank, Noble Land Bank, and Peasant Land Bank. At the same time there existed a decree of the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine about the nationalization of banks since December 14, 1917. On January 5, 1918, the Ukrainian State Bank started to issue its own money. On August 10, 1918, there was signed a statute on the Ukrainian State Bank. On August 23, 1918, there was established the State Land Bank.

At the end of World War I, Ukraine became occupied by a new Russian regime - Bolsheviks. Bolshevist Russia adopted a law of War Communism which discontinued use of any financial institutions. However, in 1921 across Ukraine started to be established State Banks of the Russian SFSR which later were transformed into the Central Bank of the USSR.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union during the times of Period of reconstruction, the National Bank of Ukraine was a republican branch of the Central Bank of the USSR, while there were registered number of banks with various status. There were over 15 banks of ministerial status, over 20 banks of state/cooperative institutions, Moscow banks in Ukraine, banks with state status. Officially, the National Bank of Ukraine acted as the Central Bank of Ukraine since early 1991. Like institutions of many newly independent nations, it faced dire financial straits during the 1990s, leading to a prolonged period of hyperinflation.