European System of Central Banks

Lending to companies in the euro zone periphery continued to fall in September, while banks in core countries kept lending more, ECB data showed on Monday, highlighting the divergence in economic strength in the bloc.

Greek banks received what amounts to a virtually clean bill of health from the European Central Bank, as the results of the stress tests Frankfurt performed on the four systemic lenders of this country showed on Sunday that Alpha and Piraeus have completed the exercise successfully through their dynamic picture, and only Eurobank and National need to cover the negligible amount of 291 million e

Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) met on Friday representatives of Vienna-based fund EPIC, Oman's state fund and London-based Gemcorp, the central bank said in a statement.

After keeping the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) in a coma for four months, yesterday Bulgaria's Central Bank (BNB) presented to the public an irresponsible lampoon, not a professional audit analysis, said the suspended KTB executive directors in an open letter to the media.

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The deposits in Bulgaria's banks grew by BGN 531 M in September, shows data of the Bulgarian National Bank.

This is the second consecutive month with growth, after the summer bank troubles when depositors were withdrawing large sums.

At the same time the lending activities remain relatively weak - in September the banks gave BGN 342 M in credits.

The conservators at Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank, KTB) have submitted to the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) the audit report of the financial institution.

KTB was placed under conservatorship by the Bulgarian National Bank on June 20 due to a bank run.

Bulgaria's central bank is resorting to "absurd" excuses to avoid carrying out its legal duties about Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank or KTB), its owner has said.

In a statement on his website, Tsvetan Vasilev also points out the bank is actually serving the interest of a coalition called "PPP", but stops short of revealing what stands for the abbreviation.

Customers of troubled Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank or KTB) tried to enter the bank's main building at Sofia's Garibaldi Square on Tuesday.

Their demand was to meet the bank's Supervisory Board, the experts appointed by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) after the latter placed KTB under conservatorship in June.

The European Central Bank is embarking on a new policy phase with its latest stimulus measures, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said, promising to steer the central bank's balance sheet "significantly higher".

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is set to push the ECB to buy junk-rated Greek and Cypriot bank loans, a move that may increase tensions between Germany and the bank, the Financial Times reported.