nina stoyanova : opening of “ fintech summit ” conference statement by ms nina stoyanova, deputy governor and head of the banking department of the bulgarian national bank, at the opening of the “ fintech summit ” conference, organised by capital newspaper, video conference, 30 march 2021. * * * i would like to welcome you to the annual fintech summit organised by capital weekly. until a few years ago the term ‘ fintech ’ was mainly associated with small innovative companies that by using digital technologies were trying to redefine the provision of financial services and find their own place on the market. today and even more after the watershed year of 2020, we can assert that technologies and innovations have become an intrinsic feature of the financial sector and a trigger for its rapid developing. recent trends show expanding cooperation and technical exchange between banks and fintech companies, which is to the benefit of clients, and results in better, faster and more secure services. the coronavirus crisis and expected recovery act as an impetus for further modernisation and digitalisation in response to consumers ’ demand and changes in society. in this context, the ambitions for accelerated reforms were also confirmed by the european commission in the ‘ eu digital finance strategy ’ and the ‘ eu retail payments strategy ’ published in september 2020. almost half a year after their launch, we can already note the first concrete steps in the implementation of the goals set in these strategies. first and foremost, i would like to focus on instant payments introduced in response to the dynamic development of communications, digital services and e - commerce. instant payments outline the forthcoming changes in payment infrastructure both in the eu and in the country. their advantage is the possibility for synchronisation between dispatching of goods and receipt of payment. transferred funds are immediately available, which enhances the security and trust in business relations and in the payment process. in the eu retail payments strategy, instant payments are called ‘ the new normal ’. the commission aims at full uptake of instant payments in the eu by the end of 2021. in bulgaria the project of instant payments in the national currency ( bgn ) is already at an advanced stage. it has been developed by the bisera6 retail payment system operatorborica ad with the assistance of the bnb as the operator of the national rtgs system rings. recently, the necessary amendments have been made to the legal framework and the payment systems. technical and functional changes were implemented in the bnb - operated rings system that ensure a possibility

dimitar radev : the bulgarian banking sector – opportunities and challenges publication by mr dimitar radev, governor of the bulgarian national bank, in the bulletin of the association of banks in bulgaria, issue 69, january 2022. * * * it is a tradition to start a calendar year by reviewing the achievements of the banking sector in the previous year and outlining the opportunities and challenges in the new one. in 2021 the covid crisis continued to put the banking sector to a serious test. unlike the stress tests in 2016 and 2019, the results of this test were not hypothetical, but provided a real assessment of the state of the sector and its capacity to operate under highly adverse conditions. this assessment can be summarised as follows : not only were bulgarian banks not weakened during the pandemic, but they enter 2022 with performance better than, or at worst consistent with, that at the start of the pandemic, including in terms of capital, liquidity, asset quality and profitability. according to the latest data for 2021, the overall capital adequacy ratio is 22. 4 % and the liquidity coverage ratio is 325. 4 %, i. e. above the eu average. at the same time, the gross amount of non - performing loans and advances continued to decline, and profits approached their historically high levels of 2019. the short explanation for these results is that the banking sector was well prepared to operate in a complex and challenging macroeconomic environment, as has been the environment over the past two years. this has allowed the banking sector to have a different focus from the one it had during the global financial crisis in 2008 or during the local problems in the sector in 2014. in these previous episodes, the banking sector was mainly engaged in solving problems within the sector. in the covid crisis over the recent two years, the banking sector was not concerned with its own problems, but mainly with alleviating the effects of the crisis on businesses and households and subsequently with the recovery and speed - up of the economy. in this sense, the covid crisis legitimised an important qualitative change in the position of the banking sector – from a source of problems in the past to an important factor in their resolution in recent years. significantly, the banking sector absorbed and implemented successfully and without shocks the anti - crisis package of measures approved by the bnb, amounting to about 9 % of the gdp, as well as a private moratorium