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

nina stoyanova : the history of bulgaria ’ s money welcome address by ms nina stoyanova, deputy governor ( banking department ) of the bulgarian national bank, at the opening of “ the history of money on the bulgarian lands ” exhibition, jointly organised by burgas municipality and the bulgarian national bank, burgas, 10 june 2016. * * * mayor nickolov, dear citizens and guests of burgas, it is a great honour for me to welcome you at the opening of this exhibition entitled ‘ the history of money on the bulgarian lands ’. co - organisers of the exhibition are burgas municipality and the bulgarian national bank. this exhibition comprises coins and coin - like items minted and circulated on today ’ s bulgarian lands from antiquity to the present day, and the major part of these comes from the bnb ’ s museum collection. before we go back in time, i would like to mention that the bulgarian national bank ( bnb ) is one of the oldest public institutions in bulgaria. it was founded immediately after the reestablishment of the bulgarian state, on 25 january 1879, and on 6 june of that same year the first banking transaction was carried out with the bnb ’ s involvement. our central bank is also one of the oldest central banks in the world – the 13th oldest one by date of foundation. today the bnb still is the independent issuing authority of bulgaria. it performs its main objective, as it is written down in the law – to keep the national currency stable – and also the functions relating to its exclusive right to release banknotes and coins into circulation and to maintain the currency circulation in bulgaria. one year after the bnb was founded, the law on the right of minting coins in the principality was adopted, whereby the national monetary unit was created and named ‘ lev ’ and the coins were named ‘ stotinki ’. in 1881 the first bulgarian coins – copper coins in denominations of 2, 5 and 10 stotinki – were minted in england, and in 1882 silver 1 and 2 leva coins were minted in russia. soon the bulgarian lev became widely accepted, facilitating trade payments and fostering the country ’ s economic development. at the same time the new national currency began to play the role of a ‘ national unifier ’, a symbol of the independence and sovereignty of the new bulgaria. for many years the production of bulgarian coins used to be assigned to specialised mints in europe – birmingham