About 30 banks and close to 60 insurers have given notice of their intention to enter the market in Bulgaria, according to Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and Financial Supervision Commission records.

The development is a consequence of Bulgaria having joined the European Union. Since Bulgaria joined the EU on January 1 this year, the rules for lenders to enter the market have changed. Former licensing application requirements have fallen away, and banks need now only notify the Bulgarian authorities through a procedure based on the EU lenders’ common passport.

A March 2 report in Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik said that the list of lenders included features ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse (Luxembourg) S.A., JP Morgan Europe, Merrill Lynch International Bank and Erste Bank AG, which would be complete newcomers to the market in Bulgaria, while others include Citibank, Dexia and Deutsche Bank which already have some sort of local representation.

The banks intend to offer services in Bulgaria including deposit, consumer, mortgage, leasing, credit card and other retail banking products.

BNB officials said that they did not expect the lenders from which they had received notifications to figure actively on the local market.

Most of the local bankers said that any competitive push on the part of the newcomers would likely be limited to the corporate segment, Dnevnik reported.

The list of EU insurers wanting to operate in Bulgaria has increased to 58, Bulgarian-language newspaper Pari reported. This represented an additional 18 new entries in just two weeks, the newspaper said.

Armeets insurance company executive director Roumen Georgiev said that the number of applications could reach 2000 to 3000.

“Registration is easy, but it is more difficult when you start operating in a new market. Most probably the first companies that expressed a desire to operate in Bulgaria have serious intentions,” Georgiev said.