Deposit Guarantee Scheme (FGVFO) 2026: What Happens to Your Deposit If a Bank Fails

You hold a deposit at a Ukrainian bank and want to know what will happen to your money if the bank stops operating. This article answers specific questions: how much will be returned, who will be turned away, how to submit a claim, and how many days you can expect to wait.

# How much is guaranteed right now

During martial law, an expanded regime applies: the FGVFO — the Deposit Guarantee Fund for Individuals — guarantees the full deposit amount of an individual with no upper limit whatsoever. This provision covers the entire period of martial law and a further three months after its official lifting.

Once those three months have passed, the standard guarantee comes into force. Its amount is set by the law on the deposit guarantee system for individuals. Check the current standard guarantee figure on the FGVFO’s official website — fgvfo.gov.ua — or in the text of the law on zakon.rada.gov.ua. This article does not quote the standard limit, as it may change before martial law ends, and an incorrect figure would cause you more harm than its absence.

If you are planning to open a new deposit or want to calculate your return with real coverage in mind, use the deposit calculator — it lets you compare the effective rate across different banks.

# Whose deposits are not covered

Before deciding which bank to keep your money in, it is worth understanding which deposits the guarantee scheme leaves out. These are not minor exceptions: some of them affect a significant proportion of account holders.

Sole trader (FOP) deposits. The FGVFO protects individuals, not business entities. If you are a FOP (sole proprietor — a common Ukrainian business structure) and you opened a deposit under your business current or deposit account, those funds are not part of the guarantee scheme. Even though the FOP and the individual are the same person, the law treats them separately. If you want to protect your savings through the FGVFO, open the deposit as an individual, not as a business.

Legal entity deposits. Companies and organisations are not covered by the FGVFO scheme. This applies to small businesses and large enterprises alike.

Deposits of persons connected to the bank. Shareholders, supervisory board members, senior management, and their close relatives are not covered by the guarantee. The law defines which persons fall into this category.

Interest not yet credited to the account. If, under the contract terms, interest is paid at the end of the term or to a separate account, and it has not been credited by the time the bank is liquidated, its recovery is governed by the liquidation procedure, where the order of priority among the bank’s creditors determines everything. An individual depositor’s claim holds a priority position in that queue, but the process can take years.

Deposits at banks that are not FGVFO members. All licensed banks are required to be members of the Fund, so this risk is minimal for an ordinary depositor. You can verify a specific bank’s status on the FGVFO website.

For more on choosing a bank and deposit rates, see the article Deposits at Ukrainian Banks 2026: UAH/USD/EUR Rates, How to Choose.

# Interest and exchange rates: what is included in the reimbursement

Two questions cause the most confusion: what happens to accrued interest, and how is a foreign-currency deposit converted.

Interest. If your contract provides for monthly crediting of interest and accumulated amounts are already on the account, they form part of the deposit and fall fully within the guarantee. If interest has been accrued in the bank’s accounting records but not yet credited — for example, you opened a 12-month deposit with interest paid at the end of the term and the bank is liquidated halfway through — those accrued amounts are not included in the standard reimbursement. They become a creditor claim in the liquidation procedure.

Example: you opened a deposit of UAH 100,000 for 12 months with monthly crediting of interest. Over three months, UAH 3,000 in interest was credited to the account. If the bank is liquidated in the fourth month, the guarantee covers UAH 103,000 — the principal deposit plus the credited interest. The fourth month’s interest, which has accrued but not yet been credited, is not included in that sum.

Foreign-currency deposits. If your deposit is in US dollars or euros, the Fund reimburses it in hryvnias at the official NBU exchange rate on the date of payout. The rate at the time you opened the deposit or on the day of liquidation is irrelevant: the rate applied is the one in force on the day the funds are actually transferred to the depositor.

To illustrate the scale: if you hold USD 2,000 on deposit and the NBU rate on the day of payout is UAH 45.38 per dollar (the official NBU rate on 14.11.2026), the Fund will transfer approximately UAH 90,760. If the rate changes by the time of payout, the hryvnia sum will change accordingly.

For a clearer picture of the difference between a hryvnia and a foreign-currency deposit, taking exchange-rate risk into account, see the article Hryvnia or Foreign-Currency Deposit in 2026: Which Is Better at What Rate.

Tax on reimbursement. An FGVFO reimbursement is not treated as income from a deposit, so no separate tax liability arises. However, interest accrued by the bank during the life of the deposit was taxed in the normal way: 18% personal income tax and 5% military levy, totalling 23%. The bank withheld these as a tax agent. If interest has not yet been taxed at the point of liquidation, the matter is resolved within the liquidation procedure.

# How to claim your payout from the FGVFO

The payout process is straightforward and requires little effort from the depositor. The FGVFO must begin payouts no later than 20 working days after the bank’s liquidation procedure starts.

Step 1. Wait for the official notice. When the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) revokes a bank’s licence, the FGVFO publishes an announcement on its website and in two national newspapers. The notice states the authorised agent bank through which payouts are made, and the timescales.

Step 2. Contact the agent bank. You do not need to visit the bank being liquidated. Payouts are made through a separate bank appointed by the FGVFO as its agent. The list of agents and their branches is published on fgvfo.gov.ua.

Step 3. Bring your passport and tax identification number. For an individual, this is usually sufficient. If you have your bank deposit agreement or savings book, bring those too: they will speed up identification, although the FGVFO holds its own registers.

Step 4. Receive your funds or provide account details for a transfer. Depending on how the payout is organised, the agent may transfer the amount to an account or pay it in cash. Check with the specific agent for details.

A common mistake: people delay approaching the agent bank, believing they must wait for a court ruling or the completion of the liquidation. This is not the case. FGVFO payouts begin quickly and do not depend on when the entire bank liquidation procedure concludes. Liquidation can take years; the Fund’s payouts happen within the first few months.

If you have several deposits at the same bank: all your accounts at one bank are aggregated. During martial law, this does not cap the reimbursement amount, but once the expanded regime ends, the combined total from one bank will be compared against the standard guarantee limit.

If you hold deposits at different banks: each bank is treated separately. Spreading funds across multiple FGVFO member banks is standard risk-management practice.

Pay particular attention to the situation if you are thinking of withdrawing your deposit early, before any problems arise at the bank: for the consequences, see the article Early Withdrawal of a Deposit: What You Lose and How to Retrieve Your Money.

# Who the guarantee scheme does not help

The expanded FGVFO guarantee resolves the problem for an individual depositor, but leaves several situations unaddressed.

If you are a FOP and hold working capital in a business deposit account, you have no FGVFO protection whatsoever. Your options are either to open personal deposits as an individual, or to spread funds across several banks to reduce concentration risk.

If you are counting on receiving a specific currency when funds are returned, bear in mind that the Fund always pays in hryvnias. If holding foreign currency matters to you, you will need to buy it again at the prevailing market rate after the payout.

If your main income from a deposit is interest paid at the end of the term, and the bank is liquidated before the deposit matures, you will not be able to recover that interest through the FGVFO. From this perspective, deposits with monthly crediting of interest represent a less risky option.

You can compare actual deposit rates at different banks, including the terms for interest crediting, in the article Highest Deposit Rates in Ukraine 2026.

# See also

• Deposit calculator — compare the effective rate and calculate your return after tax
• Deposit Rates 2026: Comparison Across 21 Ukrainian Banks
• Hryvnia or Foreign-Currency Deposit in 2026: Which Is Better at What Rate
• Deposits at Ukrainian Banks 2026: UAH/USD/EUR Rates, How to Choose