SOFIA (Bulgaria), April 27 (SeeNews) – The Greek banks in Bulgaria may consolidate as a result of the Greek debt crisis, the CEO of Bulgaria's largest lender, UniCredit Bulbank, said.
"The geographic proximity to Greece is also creating issues for Bulgaria because the country can be branded as a market under risk", Levon Hampartzoumian told The Vienna Economic Talks meeting in Sofia on Monday.
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The five Greek-owned banks operating in Bulgaria held a combined share of 29% of the total assets of the Bulgarian banking system as of December 31, 2009.
UniCredit Bulbank, part of Italian banking group UniCredit, is the largest bank by assets in Bulgaria.
Greece's financial troubles have had no direct impact on Bulgaria so far, Hampartzoumian said.
"There might be a positive scenario as well […] and it might happen that some businesses can decide to relocate to Bulgaria", he added.
Bulgaria is the most exposed among the Southeast European (SEE) states to a possible fallout from Greece's record-high 2009 budget deficit, UniCredit said in a February report. Greece is one of the top three export destinations for Bulgaria and Greek foreign direct investment in the neighbouring country is significant, the report read.
United Bulgarian Bank, owned by the National Bank of Greece S.A., is the biggest Greek bank in Bulgaria with an 11.5% share of the total assets of the Bulgarian banking system as of the end of 2009. Eurobank EFG Bulgaria AD has an 8.5% share, followed by Piraeus Bank Bulgaria with 5.1%, Alpha Bank with 3.1% and Emporiki Bank with 0.7%.
The combined assets of Bulgarian commercial banks totalled some 70.9 billion levs ($48.2 billion/36.3 billion euro) at the end of 2009. Bulgaria has 24 domestically-registered banks and branches of six foreign lenders.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bulgarian levs)
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