The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) stated a low level of national currency banknotes counterfeiting based on monitoring of hryvnia banknotes withdrawn from circulation: by the end of 2023, by 1 million pieces. Approximately 2.1 banknotes were counterfeited per 1 million authentic banknotes, while in 2022 they were 2.2 banknotes

According to the regulator's information on its website posted on Monday, last year mostly old-series banknotes were counterfeited, in particular, 93% counterfeit banknotes withdrawn from circulation were of three denominations: UAH 100, UAH 200 and UAH 500.

Data from the NBU infographics indicate an increase in the share of counterfeit UAH 200 banknotes – from 45% in 2022 to 61% in 2023 (accounting for 41% of the total amount), while the share of seized counterfeits of UAH 500, on the contrary, decreased from 39% to 24% (41% of the total). The share of counterfeit UAH 100 banknotes remained at the same level – 8% (3% of the total amount).

According to the results of monitoring in 2023, counterfeit hryvnia banknotes of new design made up 18% of the total quantity of the counterfeits withdrawn from circulation in the banking system of Ukraine. Accordingly, the number of counterfeit hryvnias per 1 million of new design authentic banknotes was only 0.4 banknotes.

"This is due to the enhanced security features that the new design national currency banknotes have, in particular, UAH 100, UAH 200, UAH 500 and UAH 1000, which the National Bank introduced into circulation in 2015-2020. In particular, for protecting high-denomination banknotes that are frequently targeted by fraudsters, innovative optically variable elements were applied that can be easily verified by the public and are hard to counterfeit," the regulator said, commenting on the monitoring data.

According to the NBU, the level of foreign currency banknotes counterfeiting last year was also low: banks and financial institutions withdrew less than 700 counterfeit foreign currency banknotes from circulation. In 2022, this figure was close to 600 banknotes.

Among the seized banknotes, U.S. dollars predominated – 97% of the total amount of all counterfeit foreign currency banknotes, while euros accounted for only 3% of the total.

The National Bank said that the most counterfeited foreign banknotes were $100 and $50 (92% and 7% of the total number of seized counterfeit U.S. dollars, respectively), as well as EUR 50 and EUR 200 (39% and 30% of seized counterfeit euro banknotes).