payments with buyers and sellers through them. Landowners and owners of real estate take loans from the banks to buy an estate or to make use of it and pay back loaned money.

Banking services

The various services provided by banks are summarized bellow.

-  The provision of safe deposit facilities for money and valuables.

-  The lending of money: this is the most profitable activity of the banks and the  one  which provides most of their income.

-  The provision of efficient money transmission services (e.g. cheques, credit cards).

-  A credit cardenables the holder to buy goods and repay the credit card issuer at a later date.

-  A loan is an amount money borrowed from the bank which must be repaid at a fixed rate of interest.

-  A mortgageis a loan to buy property

-  An overdraftis a loan made by a bank to a customer with a purpose taking out    more money than is actually in a bank account.

-  A foreign exchange service is the facility to change money from one currency to another.   

          In addition to these basic functions, modern banks provide a wide range

 of other financial services.

Opening  a bank account

  Nearly 100 Ukrainian Banks are authorized to deal in foreign currency.

The process for opening a bank account in Ukraine is regulated by the May 1996 National Bank of Ukraine's (NBU) instruction «On the Procedure of Opening Accounts in the National or Foreign Currency of Ukraine.» Holders of hard currency accounts must also have another account denominated in hryvnia, the Ukrainian currency.

Types of Accounts

Several types of bank accounts are authorized under the NBU instruction. There are several accounts  categories for individuals  and commercial  entities and one for those that are not fully resident in Ukraine. Resident entities are entitled to maintain «settlement,» «current,» «loan,» «deposit,» and «budget» accounts. The settlement account is used to make payments that are allowed in the account holder's charter. It can also be used to transfer funds to and from foreign entities. Companies usually open at least two settlement accounts, one in a hard currency, and another in domestic currency. Current accounts are essentially the same as settlement accounts but are intended for use by non-commercial entities. Loan accounts are for administering borrowed or loaned funds. The deposit account is used as a