Ukraine: can branch funding pay for a separate U.S. company?

Who receives the money matters

Suppose a Ukrainian company wants to fund a U.S. operation. First distinguish its own branch or representative office from a separately incorporated company. The branch provision in the older NBU control copy reviewed here expressly concerns foreign units without creating another legal entity, and exclusively their maintenance costs. It is not a general allowance to acquire ownership in another business.

Fictional example: a Ukrainian training brand forms a separate U.S. company and plans to send it startup capital. Calling that transfer “branch support” does not make the recipient a unit without a separate legal identity. The brand needs the current route for the actual investment payment, rather than assuming that an overseas-office allowance covers it.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine: Official control-copy Resolution 18, amendment history through 13 January 2026; complete point 14(30), 14(53), relevant 14(57) and point 14 opening

What the older branch provision actually covered

The official NBU control copy recovered for this review has an amendment history ending on 13 January 2026. Its branch-maintenance provision contains cumulative conditions. The figures below explain that dated text; they have not been verified as the current allowance.

• The Ukrainian resident legal entity must have operated for at least 12 months since state registration before the transfer. The recipient must be its own foreign branch, representative office or other unit without a separate legal entity.
• The annual base is €1 million equivalent, calculated using the official NBU exchange rate on the transaction date. A further allowance uses documented 2021 maintenance transfers for qualifying units already open on 24 February 2022. The provision combines those amounts for the monthly calculation.
• Transfers in one calendar month may not exceed one quarter of that combined annual amount. The payment must use the company’s own foreign currency, neither purchased nor raised through a credit or loan.
• The company must use one chosen servicing bank; changing it follows the written procedure cross-referenced in the provision. Transfers are exclusively for maintenance costs, supported by an expense budget.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine: Official control-copy Resolution 18, amendment history through 13 January 2026; complete point 14(30), 14(53), relevant 14(57) and point 14 opening

The NBU itself separates investment from other payments

In its explanation published on 26 August 2026, the NBU said there was no general permission for residents freely to invest abroad at that time. It separately discussed maintenance of foreign representative offices, current foreign-trade operations and export-contract penalties. Those categories should not be collapsed into a general permission to send expansion capital.

The same explanation described a mechanism for individual investments with economic or strategic justification serving state interests: the Ukrainian government may approach the NBU, which may consider a separate decision. It described this as exceptional, rather than a replacement for general currency liberalisation. An ordinary company should not treat it as a routine permission available merely on request.

That statement is dated. The complete current amended rule has not been reconciled here, so neither the statement nor the older numerical conditions establish eligibility for a present payment.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine, official nbu_ua channel: NBU official channel post nbu_ua/4112; own time element 26 August 2026 at 11:26:28 UTC National Bank of Ukraine: Official control-copy Resolution 18, amendment history through 13 January 2026; complete point 14(30), 14(53), relevant 14(57) and point 14 opening

“IP payment” and “investment limit” are also incomplete descriptions

The older text has a separate provision for IP-protection fees and duties, foreign patent-office services and foreign patent-attorney services. That wording does not itself establish permission for a commercial royalty or the purchase of IP. Another provision links an allowance to qualifying foreign investment coming into the Ukrainian resident’s capital; its label does not make it a general permission to invest abroad.

Before promising that the Ukrainian company will fund the U.S. operation, identify the actual payer and recipient, their legal relationship, the payment’s purpose, the currency source and transaction date. The servicing bank needs the current applicable exception and conditions for those facts. A U.S. formation document, an old annual limit or a revised invoice description does not answer that question.

Sources: National Bank of Ukraine: Official control-copy Resolution 18, amendment history through 13 January 2026; complete point 14(30), 14(53), relevant 14(57) and point 14 opening