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Refugees from Mariupol (on the Russian border) with hryvnia notes
Photo: ARKADY BUDNITSKY / EPA-EFE
When refugees from Ukraine arrive in Germany, they can count on a lot of support.
The help that volunteers organize in all parts of the country ranges from clothing and accommodation to job offers.
However, many newcomers are stuck on one point: when it comes to getting cash.
Because hryvnia, the Ukrainian national currency, is not exchanged by banks in Germany.
Those who emptied their accounts before fleeing in order to be taken care of abroad now have to realize that their reserves are of no use to them.
Forums on refugee aid are full of relevant reports.
"No one will exchange the money for you," writes one user on behalf of many.
A bitter realization for the refugees.
Many emphasize that they want to be able to stand on their own two feet in Germany, find a job and their own apartment quickly.
Without the euro, however, the only option is to go to the social welfare office, where refugees can apply for social benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act.
In the Berlin district of Neukölln alone, around a hundred benefit communities are now registering every day, reports district office spokesman Christian Berg.
“It was very few last week.”
While the financial hardships of Ukrainian refugees in Germany are only slowly becoming apparent, they have been around for some time in Ukraine's neighboring countries.
"Step by step and day by day it is also becoming an issue for other European countries," Włodzimierz Kiciński, deputy head of the Polish banking association ZBP, told SPIEGEL.
He recently sent a sort of plea for help to the European Central Bank (ECB).
This should set up a special fund to finance the purchase of hryvnia.
According to Kiciński, the ECB has already invested large sums in securities in the course of its loose monetary policy in recent years.
"Now there could be a similar type of support, but for the extraordinary situation in Ukraine." The funds could be divided according to the number of refugees per country and capped per capita, the bank official suggests.
»Perhaps the EU should also be the donor.«
German industry representatives are now also calling on politicians to take action.
"A joint European solution would be in the interests of the refugees," says Dirk Stein, head of the Retail Banking and Consumer Protection department at the Association of German Banks (BdB).
The German banking industry, which brings together German banking associations, is also calling for such a solution.
"In the past there was no demand for the exchange of hryvnia into euros, so it was not offered by the usual exchange offices," says the association.
"As is well known, the situation has now changed fundamentally."
The message had arrived, signaled Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) on Wednesday when the budget plans were presented.
When it comes to questions about details, however, his office refers to the responsibility of the Bundesbank and the European Central Bank.
ECB boss Christine Lagarde in turn assured, as did the Vice President of the EU Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, that a solution was being worked on.
But it's obviously not easy to find.
Because the so-called foreign currency transactions also include clearing – i.e. the resale of the foreign currency.
And European banks are currently lacking a clearing partner.
The central bank has other concerns
The Ukrainian central bank still has significant foreign exchange reserves with which it could buy hryvnia.
But they are needed for other purposes: the central bank collects money for humanitarian aid and support for the military, and has even set up donation accounts for both.
For the time being, they will no longer buy hryvnia from other central banks.
Under these circumstances, the official exchange rate of the hryvnia, which has hardly fluctuated at all, is of limited significance.
"The value of the currency is of course a big question mark," says Polish bank representative Kiciński.
Under these circumstances, the exchange of hryvnia is a risk for banks that they will hardly take without state protection.
Therefore, as proposed by Kiciński, the ECB could step in, possibly backed by EU funds or guarantees.
A kind of framework agreement between the ECB and the Ukrainian National Bank, which would agree on clearing at a later date, would also be conceivable.
In view of the Russian attacks, nobody knows whether the Ukrainian National Bank will even be a negotiating partner in the future.
Last week, the central bank advised fleeing citizens not to take cash with them, but rather to deposit their money into card accounts.
So far, that seems to have been the right advice: Refugees can often still withdraw money with cards - especially when it comes to international providers such as Visa or Mastercard.
The banknotes of Ukrainian refugees, on the other hand, remain worthless for the time being.
In this situation, appeals are increasing in Germany that at least private individuals should exchange the Ukrainian currency for euros now - less as a business than as a humanitarian gesture.
