dimitar radev : accession to the euro area - a catalyst for social and economic prosperity summary of a statement by mr dimitar radev, governor of the bulgarian national bank, at the annual government meets the business conference, sofia, 29 january 2019. * * * during the annual government meets the business conference dedicated to bulgaria ’ s path to the eurozone, the bulgarian national bank ’ s governor, mr. dimitar radev, outlined the activities of the central bank in this process and the anticipated effects for the economy and the business from the national currency ’ s entry into the exchange rate mechanism ( erm ii ) and the adoption of the euro in bulgaria. provisionally, the work will be conducted in two stages : a short - and long - term. the short - term stage is linked to the preparation for simultaneous accession to the banking union and lev ’ s entry into erm ii. the second stage is bulgaria joining the euro area. mr. radev underlined that the bnb is currently focused on the first stage, the outcomes of which will determine the next steps to follow. in terms of content, the first stage consists in joining the single supervisory mechanism and the single resolution mechanism. as regards the single supervisory mechanism, the bnb is concentrated on three work blocks. the first one is creating the necessary regulatory framework. overall, work in this direction was completed with the adoption of the necessary package of legislative amendments by the national assembly at the end of last year. the second block relates to synchronising the bnb supervisory practices with those of the ecb. this includes an enormous amount of activities, among which supervisory regulations, statistics, and it systems. the bnb ’ s efforts in this area are a logical development of the banking sector reforms launched in 2015. the third work block is linked to organising and conducting the asset quality review and the stress test, which is a widely discussed topic. the preparatory phase in this respect has been completed. the banks that will be covered by the review and stress test have been designated, as well as the auditors, methodologies and macroeconomic scenarios used for the stress test purposes. the results are expected to be announced in july, mr. radev said. work on the single resolution mechanism has been organised in very much the same way. an essential element in the first work block in this area – amendments to the legal framework – is the preparation of a draft law amending and supplementing the law on

nina stoyanova : banks and business speech by ms nina stoyanova, deputy governor and head of the banking department of the bulgarian national bank, during the video conference " banks and business ", organized by the capital newspaper, 2 december 2020. * * * i would like to welcome you to the video conference on banking and business, organized by the capital newspaper. the banking sector is sending off a challenging year. in 2020, we witnessed the unprecedented pandemic caused by covid - 19, the imposition of measures to prevent its spread, which led to an economic downturn, as well as to many difficulties facing business and the people we have to deal with on a daily basis. however, there were also positive events during the year, such as the inclusion of the bulgarian lev in monetary mechanism ii and the establishment of close cooperation between the bulgarian national bank ( bnb ) and the european central bank ( ecb ) in the field of banking supervision in july. 2020 banks in bulgaria were able to quickly adapt to the new reality resulting from the pandemic and ensure continuity in the provision of financial services to businesses and citizens. this became possible due to the high degree of electronicization and digitalization of the banking sector in the country. the focus of the activity of both the bnb as a regulator and the payment service providers in 2020 was aimed at increasing the security of electronic payments with an emphasis on card payment transactions on the internet and the opening of access to payment accounts ( the so - called “ open banking ” ). both processes are expected to be completed by the end of 2020 within the deadlines for the european union. the package of digital finance documents published in september 2020 by the european commission gives us a look at the future of payment services in the medium term. one of the important aspects in it should be the forthcoming revision of the payment services directive ( psd 2 ) in 2021. a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the in - depth identification of the customer on the level of payment fraud is to be made. new requirements will be considered to reduce “ social engineering ” or “ phishing ” fraud, including a match requirement between the payee ’ s name specified in the payment order and that of the account holder. special emphasis will be placed on the prevention of fraud in immediate payments. the possibilities for using the electronic identification and the solutions based on the certification services for fulfillment of the requirements for in - depth establishment of the client ’ s identity upon entering the account