The Bulgarian National Bank ( bg, Българска народна банка, Bohlgarska narodna banka, ), or BNB, is the

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the currency and monetary policy of a country or monetary union, and oversees their commercial banking system. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central b ...

of the

Republic of 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 ...

. Headquartered in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, the bank was established in 1879. It is the 13th oldest central bank in the world. An independent institution responsible for issuing all

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued ...

s and

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

s in the country, BNB oversees and regulates the banking sector and is tasked with safekeeping the government's currency reserves. It is also the sole owner of the Bulgarian Mint. The bank has a key role in the Bulgarian economy. Since 1 October 2007, it has been a member of the

European System of Central Banks The European System of Central Banks (ESCB) is an institution that comprises the European Central Bank (ECB) and the national central banks (NCBs) of all 27 member states of the European Union (EU). Its objective is to ensure price stability t ...

. The governor of the BNB is a member of the General Assembly of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's most important centr ...

Headquarters

The Bulgarian National Bank's headquarters in

are located on the central Battenberg Square. The current edifice was commissioned to renowned architects Ivan Vasilyov and Dimitar Tsolov and built between 1934 and 1939 in the non-decorative Neoclassical style of the time. It spreads over an area of 3,700 m² and has four overground and three underground storeys. Its interior is the work of Ivan Penkov and

Dechko Uzunov Dechko Uzunov ( bg, Дечко Узунов) (February 22, 1899 – April 26, 1986) was a Bulgarian painter. He was born in Kazanluk and died in Sofia at the age of 87. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1 ...

History

On 25 January 1879, the Russian Imperial Commissar in Bulgaria, Knyaz Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov, approved the Charter of the Bulgarian National Bank. On 4 April 1879, the first BNB Governor was appointed, on 23 May the Bank was officially opened, and on 6 June it carried out its first banking operation. The Law on the right to mint coins in the Principality was passed in 1880, and it instituted the Bulgarian national currency, the Lev. The following year, Bulgaria minted its first coins of 2, 5 and 10 stotinki. BNB c

Initially, the BNB was a state-owned central bank, subject to the oversight of the Minister of Finance, which serviced the state budget and the cash activities of the Government and carried out banking transactions typical of a commercial bank, without having the right to print or introduce banknotes into circulation. The Law on the foundation of the BNB and the new Charter, both passed in 1885, reorganised the Bank, expanding its autonomy to include printing banknotes. Later in the same year, the Bank issued the first Bulgarian banknotes. By the outbreak of the

Balkan War The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defea ...

(1912), the BNB gained much experience as a bank of issue and strengthened its independence. Apart from being the major lending centre in Bulgaria, it became the regulator of the monetary system, clearing the cash circulation of foreign coins and coping with the serious money crisis in Bulgaria in the late 19th century and with the consequences of the European money crisis in the early years of the 20th century. During the wars (1912–1918) the BNB was forced to almost limitlessly lend to the Government and increase the note issue and the amount of notes in circulation. The Bulgarian Lev came out of the wars strongly depreciated, and during the decade afterwards the Bank made efforts to restore its value. As a result, in 1928, with the support of the Financial Committee of the League of Nations, Bulgaria was granted a big loan (called 'Stabilisation Loan') intended to stabilise the Lev; to reinforce the capital stock of the BNB; and to liquidate the Government's debt to the Bank. Two new laws were passed for the same purpose – the Law on the BNB, which made the most profound institutional changes to the Bank (it became a real central bank of issue free of any activities untypical of this type of bank), and the Law on the stabilisation of the Lev and on coinage, which established a gold standard in Bulgaria whereby 92 Leva equalled 1 gram of pure gold. All these steps supported the Bank's business during the years of the Great Depression (1929–1933). From the mid-1930s till Bulgaria entered the Second World War in 1941 the BNB went through a revival. At that time the building of the Bank was constructed, which houses it to the present day. During the Second World War, the BNB was compelled again to lend to the Government and deal with the depreciation of the Lev. The 1947 Law on Banks carried out a drastic reform: private banks were nationalised and the banking system was transformed on the Soviet model and thus operated until the late 1980s. The BNB was entrusted to provide all financial services to the newly created overcentralised planned economy. The Bank too was obliged to directly lend to the Government and the economy, being directly subordinated to the Council of Ministers and the Minister of Finance. In 1952 the Bulgarian Mint was set up and it started minting circulation and commemorative coins. The return of the Bulgarian banking system to the market economy principles and of the BNB to the independent central bank principles became possible only in 1991 when two basic laws came into effect – the Commerce Law, which brought back the legal foundations of commercial banking, and the new Law on the BNB, which restored the Bank's autonomy and gave it the responsibility for supervising banks. In 1997 another Law on the BNB superseded the previous one; it reorganised the monetary system, and from 1 July a currency board arrangement was put in place. At first the Bulgarian Lev was pegged to the Deutsche Mark, and from 1999 – to the Euro, at the rate of 1.95583 Leva for 1 Euro. Later in the same year the Bulgarian Lev was re-denominated. In 1998, the BNB Printing Works was opened for business and it began the production of banknotes and bonds with a very high level of security. In 2005, amendments were made to the Law on the BNB, which ensured the institutional, functional, financial and personal independence of the BNB, changed the core purpose of the Bank, and expressly prohibited the central bank from providing funding to public institutions. On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria joined the European Union, and ever since the BNB has been a member of the European System of Central Banks.

Structure

The bank is organised into three departments: * Issue Department, responsible for maintaining the full foreign exchange coverage of the total amount of monetary liabilities, i.e. the issuance of national currency * Banking Department, which, in case of systemic risk, acts as the lender of last resort. It also administers the

currency board In public finance, a currency board is a monetary authority which is required to maintain a fixed exchange rate with a foreign currency. This policy objective requires the conventional objectives of a central bank to be subordinated to the exch ...

, introduced in Bulgaria in 1997 * Supervision Department, which oversees the country's banking system.

Governors

* Ludovig Carbonneur, acting, 4 April 1879 – 1 July 1879 *

Georgi Zheliazkovich Georgi may refer to: * Georgi (given name) * Georgi (surname) See also * Georgy (disambiguation) *Georgii (disambiguation) Georgii may refer to: ;Given name * Georgii Zantaraia (born 1987), Ukrainian judoka of Georgian origin * Georgii Karpechenko ...

, 1 July 1879 – 27 April 1881 * Tsidor Mihailovich, acting, 27 April 1881 – 11 October 1883 *

Ivan Evstratiev Geshov Ivan Evstratiev Geshov ( bg, Иван Евстратиев Гешов) (20 February 1849 OS">Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in Eastern Europe">OS– 11 March 1924) was a Bulgarian politician who served as Bulgarian Prime Min ...

, 1 December 1883 – 26 August 1886 *

Dimitar Popov Dimitar Nikolaev Popov ( bg, Димитър Николаев Попов; born 27 February 1970) is a former Bulgarian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career In his career Popov played for Levski Sofia, Botev Plovdiv, Sparta ...

, acting, 26 August 1886 – 4 December 1887 * Mihail Tenev, acting, 4 December 1887 – 1 January 1894 * Mihail Tenev, 1 January 1894 – 19 January 1899 *

Stefan Karadjov Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

, acting, 19 January 1899 – 1 March 1899 *

, 1 March 1899 – 1 October 1905 * Boncho Boev, 23 February 1906 – 7 August 1908 *

Hristo Chakalov Hristo ( bg, Христо, also spelled Khristo) is a Bulgarian masculine given name, ultimately derived from "Christ". Notable people with the name include: * Hristo Arangelov (born 1978), Bulgarian footballer * Hristo Batandzhiev (died 1913), ...

, 7 August 1908 – 12 June 1920 *

Boyan Damyanov Boyan may refer to: People * Bojan, a common Slavic given name spelled as Boyan in Bulgarian * Boyan (bard) (10th–11th century), a bard active at the court of Yaroslav the Wise * Boyan (given name), a common Bulgarian given name * Boyan (Hasi ...

, 16 July 1920 – 30 September 1922 *

Dobri Bozhilov Dobri Bozhilov Khadzhiyanakev () (June 13, 1884 – February 1, 1945) was Prime Minister of Bulgaria during World War II. Biography Born in Kotel, Bulgaria, Bozhilov attended the Higher Commercial School in Svishtov before starting work as a ...

, acting, 1 December 1922 – 31 March 1923 * Iliya Karadjov, 26 March 1923 – 8 June 1923 *

, acting, 1 December 1923 – 1 March 1924 * Kosta Bojadjiev, 21 September 1924 – 16 January 1926 * Asen Ivanov, 18 January 1926 – 29 August 1931 *

, acting, 29 August 1931 – 29 February 1932 * Nikola Momchilov, 29 February 1932 – 31 July 1934 *

, acting, 2 August 1934 – 4 February 1935 * Marko Ryaskov, 4 February 1935 – 21 April 1935 *

, 25 April 1935 – 14 November 1938 * Kiril Gunev, acting, 14 November 1938 – 1 June 1944 *

, 1 June 1944 – 10 August 1944 * Kiril Gunev, 10 August 1944 – November 1944 * Ivan Stefanov, acting, 23 December 1944 – 14 November 1945 * Ivan Stefanov, 14 December 1945 – 31 March 1946 * Stancho Cholakov, 31 March 1946 – 10 October 1946 * Tzonyu Tzonchev, 10 October 1946 – 13 August 1949 * Atanas Mechkarov, 13 August 1949 – 19 March 1955 * Vela Lukanova, 5 December 1955 – 5 December 1959 * Kiril Nestorov, 7 December 1959 – 5 January 1969 * Kiril Zarev, 5 January 1969 – 7 July 1974 * Veselin Nikiforov, 8 July 1974 – 3 January 1984 *

Vasil Kolarov Vasil Petrov Kolarov ( bg, Васил Петров Коларов; 16 July 1877 – 23 January 1950) was a Bulgarian communist political leader and leading functionary in the Communist International (Comintern). Biography Early years Kolarov wa ...

, 3 January 1984 – 20 December 1989 * Ivan Dragnevski, 20 December 1989 – 9 January 1991 * Todor Valchev, 9 January 1991 – 24 January 1996 * Lyubomir Filipov, 24 January 1996 – 11 June 1997 * Svetoslav Gavriiski, 11 June 1997 – 9 October 2003 * Ivan Iskrov, 9 October 2003 – 14 July 2015 * Dimitar Radev, 15 July 2015 – Source:

References

External links

*
Bulgarian National Bank official site

Gallery of Bulgarian paper money
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulgarian National Bank 1879 establishments in Bulgaria Banks established in 1879

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 Macedo ...

Companies based in Sofia Balgarska Neoclassical architecture in Bulgaria