the better accessibility of bulgarian securities for investors from the european union. the project to link the bisera7 - eur payment system operated by borica ad to the eurosystem's service for the settlement of instant transfers in euro tips has also registered some serious progress, which will enable the banks in the country to offer instant transfers in euro. the tips accession project can be seen as an upgrade to instant payments in bgn. in addition, this project will ensure infrastructure readiness in the context of the expected changes to the sepa1 regulation 260 / 2012, according to which payment service providers that execute customer credit transfers in euro will have to be able to also perform instant credit transfers in euro. the bulgarian national bank and borica ad continue to work effectively to ensure full reachability for the execution of customer sepa credit transfers in euro in the single euro payments area, and this is one of the main highlights of common cooperation. thus, in the coming months, full reachability will be ensured for the execution of credit transfers in euro to over 4800 payment service providers in all sepa area countries, using a prepaid model with continuous settlement and thus also reducing the time for performing credit transfers in euro. in other words, we will be able to say that, in terms of credit transfers, we will practically enter the euro area before the indicative date of 1 january 2025. also, the regulations affecting payment services in the european union and, particularly, in bulgaria are going to be developed further. let us recall that, along with many other regulations of essential importance for the sector, though the second payment services directive ( directive 2015 / 2366, psd2 ) it was regulated for example the'open banking'– which has become a daily routine for an increasing number of 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches consumers and business customers. this laid a good foundation for the rapid development of new business models, services and solutions. psd2 is currently fully integrated into both supervisory and business practices in bulgaria. psd2 has become the basis for putting forward new european legislation in the field of payments in june this year – the proposals for a new payment services directive 3 ( psd3 ) and a payment services regulation ( psr ). the psd3 proposal is largely based on the relevant provisions of psd2 and the electronic money directive ( directive 2009 / 110 / c, emd ) in terms of authorisation and supervisory requirements. in this way, psd3

nina stoyanova : bulgaria in the eurozone – what is next for the business speech by ms nina stoyanova, deputy governor of the bulgarian national bank, at the opening of the financial forum " innovations ", organised by association " bank of the year ", sofia, 7 june 2023. * * * i would like to thank the organisers from the association'bank of the year'for inviting me to open today's financial forum'innovations '. over the years this forum has established itself as one of the most important events in the area of finance and payments. the financial sector in europe and in our country is undoubtedly one of the areas where innovations are advancing most rapidly and have the greatest impact on the dynamics of products and services. today we see fully digitalised banks, self - service zones, implementation of artificial intelligence, increasingly varied payment instruments and technologies. developing competition, but also partnership between the fintech sector and banks fosters the emergence of multiple new, convenient and secure financial and payment products. at the same time, the policies pursued by national and european regulators have led to a lasting and stable reduction in payment fraud. the data in the recently published report of the european central bank ( ecb ) 1 on this subject, covering the period of 2020 – 2021, show that in 2021 card fraud in europe, as a share of the total value of card payments, reached its lowest level since the start of such statistical data collection in 2008, i. e. less than 0. 03 %. more specifically, the value of card - not - present fraud ( i. e. through virtual pos terminals ) declined by 12 % in 2021 compared to 2020 in light of the market - wide implementation of the strong customer authentication standards. another vivid illustration is that fraud via counterfeit cards at physical terminals ( e. g. in the form of using forged payment cards at shops and atms ) declined by 42 % in 2021 compared to 2020, and the mass implementation of the chip and pin enhanced security standards almost eradicated such type of fraud in europe. the payment infrastructure in bulgaria has evolved significantly over the last few years with the aim to implement modern technological solutions and to ensure the security of payments. the preparations for the euro changeover have certainly catalysed and accelerated this process. market players and the bulgarian national bank continue to work intensively on all the projects incorporated in the national euro changeover plan of the republic of bulgaria. all the activities are running according to