Bank regulation

The World Bank has said it approved on Friday a EUR 300 M loan to the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF).

The 10.5-year loan has a grace period of six years. 

The European Commission proposed on Tuesday a euro-area wide insurance scheme for bank deposits.

The EU executive body also set out further measures to reduce remaining risks in the banking sector in parallel.

There are two bidders to acquire Bulgaria's Vivacom, in an auction that started Thursday morning and has been going on for more than 12 hours.

Bulgarian daily 24 Chasa wrote Thursday evening it was "nearly a hundred percent certain" the two candidates were Spas Rusev (a Bulgarian) and Panos Germanos (a Greek citizen who joined forces with hedge fund Third Point).

Constantinos Kypreos, Vice President - Senior Credit Officer at Moody's Investors Service, argued that the Bulgarian banking system is on a slow path to recovery after the crisis experienced with the collapse of Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) in 2014.

Bulgaria's central bank BNB said on Thursday it will publicly unveil a plan for the strengthening of its banking supervision role by the end of September 2015.

Standard & Poor's has confirmed its long- and short-term foreign and local currency rating on Bulgaria at 'BB +/ B' with stable outlook, the Finance Ministry in Sofia said on Friday.

Bulgarian MPs approved on Friday almost unanimously the amendments to the Law on Credit Institutions, which provide conditions for the lifting of the bank secrecy.

The proposals were adopted at first reading by 112 MP voting in favour, one voting against and one abstaining, daily Dnevnik reports.

International credit rating agency Fitch has said Turkey's banking sector will not be significantly affected by the takeover of Bank Asya. The agency, however, warned of the takeover's potential negative impacts on investor sentiments towards Turkey and the perceived independence of the country's banking watchdog. 

European Commission Vice-President Kristalina Georgieva advised Bulgaria to introduce a transparency register similar to that established by the EU.

Georgieva pointed that the Commission introduced a transparency register this year and if a Commissioner is meeting a private organisation or NGO it has to appear on the register.

Representatives from Turkish banking industry said several strict measures, which were put during extraordinary times, should be lifted during ordinary times at a meeting in Istanbul on April 9.