xml standard. payment service users will be relieved of the requirement to specify bic for these payments. small - value payment systems in euro must ensure that they are operationally compatible with other similar systems in the eu. at the end of 2015, in bulgaria the share of sepa credit transfers in the total number of customers ’ credit transfer orders in euro was 59 %, and the migration to the emv standard for bank payment cards and pos terminals is over 90 % and is nearly complete. • with effect from 1 february 2016, member states must remove settlement - based national reporting obligations on payment service providers for balance of payments statistics relating to payment transactions of their customers. soon the national assembly is going to pass amendments to the currency law, introduced with the law on consumers ’ real estate loans, and the related changes are going to be made to ordinance no. 27 on the balance of payment statistics. therefore, payment service providers will no longer be required, for the needs of the balance of payments statistics, to keep registers and provide the bnb with information on transactions and payments between residents and non - residents and on bis central bankers ’ speeches cross - border transfers of over bgn 100 000. we expect that these changes would be passed by the end of july this year. • in relation to the agreement reached between the mof, bnb and market participants, the bnb as the fiscal agent of the government works on a project for the technical implementation of direct connection of the government securities depository with the ebond system to the bloomberg professional platform and the system of the bulgarian stock exchange. thus, additional development and modernization of the bulgarian government securities market is expected to be achieved and its further integration into the european union ’ s single market to be encouraged. this will allow by the end of next year financial institutions to freely select the place where they trade in government securities issued in bulgaria, in compliance with the requirements under regulation 2015 / 61 concerning the assessment of liquid assets in the form of government securities. this would possibly provide the prerequisites for additional diversification of the investors in bulgarian government debt instruments. these changes are conceived in line with the debt management and financial markets security policy in the context of our future euro area membership and are necessitated by regulatory reforms at eu level. finally, i would like to mention a project successfully completed recently. on 31 may 2016 bulgaria subscribed to the special data dissemination standard plus of the international monetary fund ( imf ). bulgaria is the 11th

dimitar radev : bulgaria in the eurozone – what is next for the business speech by mr dimitar radev, governor of the bulgarian national bank, at the conference " bulgaria in the eurozone – what is next for the business ", organised by the american chamber of commerce in bulgaria ( amcham ), sofia, 5 april 2023. * * * ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the invitation. it is a real pleasure for me to be here at this conference. over the last few months, i have had the opportunity to attend several similar events. my personal impression is that the business is becoming more and more actively involved in bulgaria's accession to the euro area and this is a very positive trend. i am going to dwell on three issues, trying not to repeat what mr. mihailov and mr. metodiev have said, which by the way i totally agree with. the three questions associated with the process of bulgaria's accession to the euro area that i will focus on are : what is the starting position ; what comes next ; and what are the conditions needed for this process to finish successfully. starting position before we go into discussion on the next steps, we have to be very clear about what our starting position is. this position is unique, at the very least for two reasons : the first reason is that bulgaria is the only country in the european union, which is a member of the european banking union, a key institution of the euro area, but it is not a member of the euro area itself. the second reason is that bulgaria is one of the two countries in the european union, together with denmark, whose currency has joined the european exchange rate mechanism, which many observers describe as the euro area " waiting room ". the preparedness of the central bank and of the banking sector to operate under the conditions of the euro area, as well as the stability of the exchange rate are actually two of the most important requirements for a country to enter the euro area. these requirements, in the case of bulgaria, have already been met. as you know, in 2020 bulgaria become a full member of the european banking union. ever since our currency has been part of the european exchange rate mechanism. by virtue of our membership in the european banking union and in its key mechanisms, the single supervisory mechanism and the single resolution mechanism, the bulgarian national bank takes part in making the most important decisions related to the supervision and resolution of the banks in