Sofia. Thirty-seven leading world banks plan to open offices in Bulgaria the Standart Daily reported. They have already informed the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) about their intentions. Eight banks submitted their applications in the last couple of days. Those are the German DEPFA Deutsche Pfandbriefbank AG), the Hungarian MKB, owner of Unionbank, Credit Suisse International, the Austrian Hypo Alpe Adria Bank, the French banks EULER HERMES SFAC and Compagnie Generale D'Affacturage, the Austrian Raiffeisen Zentralbank and Kommunalkredit International Bank from Cyprus.
After Bulgaria's accession to the EU all financial institutions licensed to do business in the Union are also allowed to operate in Bulgaria by only informing the BNB in advance.
The BNB has already received applications both by some of the giant investment banks and by banks mainly orientated towards common clients. Some of them include JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, ABN Amro, Erste Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, Citibank International, Deutsche Bank, West LB, Hungary's OTP Bank, owner of DSK Bank.
The arrival of foreign banks in Bulgaria will inevitably bring changes that will be felt on the market this autumn at the earliest, said bankers for the Standart.
Loan interest rates are expected to fall down while the interests on deposits are expected to grow. However, this will happen gradually over a relatively long period of time.