Banks

The Sofia Regional Court allowed the divulging of bank secret on the debtors of the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB), reports Dnevnik.bg.

According to the website, the request was made by the prosecution on July 9, in connection to the investigation against the Bulgarian National Bank sub-governor Tsvetan Gunev who was in charge of banking sector oversight. 

In the first five months of 2014 the direct foreign investments in Bulgaria decreased by 33.8%, shows preliminary data of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB). 

Between January and May in Bulgaria's economy were invested EUR 302.6 M, compared to EUR 456.9 M in the same period of 2013. 

The full text was published on Forbes magazine's website.

"So now we know what lies beneath the recent Bulgarian bank runs. Fraud," Frances Coppola argues in an article on the Forbes magazine's website.

Coppola's text is dedicated to the events at Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB), which the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) stripped of license on Friday.

Sofia City Court released Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) chief executive Orlin Rusev on bail and placed Chief Cashier Mariya Dimova under house arrest, officials reported.

After a nine-hour-long session that started Sunday and ended early on Monday, it also decided that Chief Accountant Margarita Petrova and her deputy Borislava Treneva - Kyuchukova should remain in detention.

Sofia City Prosecutor's office has dropped the charges against four Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) employees, a lawyer of one of them revealed.

Hristo Botev, representing KTB Chief Accountant Borislava Treneva - Kyuchukova, said short before a sitting at the Sofia City Court during which the detention imposed on the employees is due to be considered.

Four people were detained as part of an ongoing investigation into the reportedly illicit withdrawal of BGN 206 M from the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB), media reports say.  

Citing "its own" sources, the Bulgarian National Radio disputes previous information from the Bulgarian Prosecutor's Office, which announced Friday that only two people were arrested.

“Ivan Iskrov does not take one-man decisions, as Tsvetan Vasilev suggests,”  Bulgarian National Bank Governor Ivan Iskrov told BGNES in response to Vasilev's open letter.

Bulgarian media reported on Friday that the Bulgarian National Bank, BNB, would revoke the license of the Corporate Commercial Bank, Bulgaria’s fourth largest bank, and nationalize its subsidiary, Credit Agricole Bulgaria.

The Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB) majority shareholder Tsvetan Vasilev responded to the claims of BNB Governor Ivan Iskrov in an open letter, published by the BGNES wire agency. 

“In the past few months I was subjected to a massive, purposeful and extremely manipulative campaign, which spread over everything, connected with my name,” the letter reads. 

Highlights of the statement of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) regarding the nationalization of Credit Agricole Bulgaria, daughter bank of the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB):