UniCredit Bulbank is the largest

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. Before 1994, the bank was known as the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank or BFTB. UniCredit Bulbank was formed in 2007 as a merger between Bulbank, Biochim, and Hebros Bank, all of them owned by the

UniCredit Group UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was fo ...

History

Bulbank's prototype, the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank, started in 1964 as a fully state-owned bank, with a paid-up capital of BGL 40 million and statutory specialisation in foreign trade payments and finance. Representative offices of the Bank in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, and

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

were opened during the next two decades. BFTB took part of the establishment of two joint stock companies in 1987 and 1998 — Bayerisch-Bulgarische Handelsbank GmbH (after 1998, HypoVereinsbank Bulgaria) with

Bayerische Vereinsbank UniCredit Bank AG, better known under its brand name HypoVereinsbank (HVB), is the fifth-largest of the German financial institutions, ranked according to its total assets, and the fourth-largest bank in Germany according to the number of its e ...

(HVB) and Bulgarsovinvest (after 1994, Corporate Commercial Bank) with

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, respectively. In 1991, after the 1989 coup, the Bank Consolidation Company (BCC) was founded as a holding company to consolidate the state ownership in the banking sector and to facilitate the privatisation of banks. BCC held 98% of Bulbank's share capital. Bulbank was the first Bulgarian bank to adopt

SWIFT Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, ...

codes, whereby it significantly strengthened its operational performance and enhanced the reliability of its transactions. The 1992 meeting of shareholders changed the bank's status to a universal commercial bank, so the branch network was expanded (

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

Kardzhali Kardzhali ( bg, Кърджали , ''Kărdžali''; tr, Kırcaali; gr, Κάρτζαλι, ''Kártzali''), sometimes spelt Kardžali or Kurdzhali, is a town in the Eastern Rhodopes in Bulgaria, centre of Kardzhali Municipality and Kardzhali Provi ...

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

Stara Zagora Stara Zagora ( bg, Стара Загора, ) is the sixth-largest city in Bulgaria, and the administrative capital of the homonymous Stara Zagora Province. Name The name comes from the Slavic root ''star'' ("old") and the name of the medieva ...

, etc.), focusing on customer service in the years to follow. In 1994, the meeting of shareholders passed a resolution to change the bank's name to Bulbank. In 1998 Bulbank co-branded its international card payment system with

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and

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. As a result of the privatisation procedure between 1998 and 2000

UniCredito Italiano UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was for ...

possessed of 93% of the capital and

Allianz Allianz ( , ) is a German multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. The company is one of the world's largest insurers and financial services groups. The ...

had 5%. Bulbank sold its participations in Corporate Commercial Bank (99,9%), as well as that in United Bulgarian Bank (35%) and in HypoVereinsbank Bulgaria (49%). In 2001 Bulbank's major shareholder, UniCredito, sold minor stakes to the Italian SIMEST S.p.A., Rome, and the

International Finance Corporation The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is an international financial institution that offers investment, advisory, and asset-management services to encourage private-sector development in less developed countries. The IFC is a member of t ...

— 2,5% and 5,3% of the share capital respectively. Since 2006, Bulbank has been in the process of merging with

HVB Bank Biochim UniCredit Bulbank is the largest bank of Bulgaria. Before 1994, the bank was known as the Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank or BFTB. UniCredit Bulbank was formed in 2007 as a merger between Bulbank, Biochim, and Hebros Bank, all of them owned by the Un ...

and

Hebros Bank Maritsa or Maritza ( bg, Марица ), also known as Meriç ( tr, Meriç ) and Evros ( ell, Έβρος ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,HVB Group UniCredit Bank AG, better known under its brand name HypoVereinsbank (HVB), is the fifth-largest of the German financial institutions, ranked according to its total assets, and the fourth-largest bank in Germany according to the number of its e ...

in 2005. On April 27, 2007, the legal merger between Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank was announced. The name of the merged institution is UniCredit Bulbank. Since 2001, the CEO of UniCredit Bulbank is Levon Hampartzoumian. In May 2019, Teodora Petkova became the CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of UniCredit Bulbank.

References

External links

UniCredit Bulbank
(official website) Протоколи КЗП договори за кредит

Предписание от КЗП

Наказателно постановление № ЗИИП-К-8729/01.12.2010 г.

{{Authority control Banks of Bulgaria UniCredit subsidiaries Banks established in 1964 Bulgarian companies established in 1964

History

See also

References

External links