A number of banks have confirmed plans to expand, especially by increasing the number of their branches.
On February 23, the National Bank of Greece (NBG) said that it planned to open more than 100 new branches in Bulgaria as part of the banks strategy for expansion in South Eastern Europe.
NBG has owned Bulgaria s third largest bank, United Bulgarian Bank, since 2000. NBG posted a profit increase of about 36 per cent in 2006, and has declared that it expects a minimum rate of profit growth of about 30 per cent a year in 2007-2009.
On February 22, Raiffeisenbank said that it had opened five new offices since the beginning of the year. In Sofia alone, the bank now has 19 branches, after opening at new locations in Vassil Levski Boulevard. and Botevgradsko Blvd. The three other offices were opened in Varna, Rousse and Stara Zagora. This brings the number of Raiffeisenbank outlets to 115.
On the same day, United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) opened a new office in the Druzhba residential area of Sofia. The new outlet offers services to both corporate and retail clients, including deposit accounts in leva and foreign currency; consumer, housing and car loans, credit cards and e-banking.
Bulgarian-language Monitor daily reported that ProCredit Banks new headquarters, currently under construction in Todor Aleksandrov Boulevard in Sofia, is scheduled to open for clients by the end of 2008. Filto ltd. has been selected to do the construction, and architectural firm Platikanova and Obreshkov designed the project.
Wire agency SeeNews reported on February 27 that Hungarian OTP Banks fund management arm plans to launch at least two investment funds in Bulgaria in the second half of the year raising the number of funds it offers to local investors to four.
OTP plans to introduce in Bulgaria a fund focusing on global emerging markets and a structured fund or structured deposit, said OTP fund management chief executive Sandor Szalai. OTP has already introduced its OTP International Equity UBS Fund of Funds and OTP Central European Equity Fund in Bulgaria.
On February 20, the Competition Protection Commission announced that Piraeus Bank Bulgaria planned to merge with the Bulgarian branch of ING Bank. The commission is to rule on whether the merger is acceptable.
The merger is expected to affect the market of bank related services in Bulgaria. Piraeus bank is actively involved in financing small and medium enterprises in Bulgaria.
