Corporate Commercial Bank saga: Borissov wants BNB leadership gone as soon as possible
The leadership of central Bulgarian National Bank must be replaced as soon as possible because they had been deliberately idle for the four months of the Corporate Commercial Bank controversy, the leader of Bulgaria’s largest political party, Boiko Borissov, said on October 26.
Borissov, who is seeking to form a government following early parliamentary elections three weeks ago, was speaking on the eve of the first sitting of the new National Assembly, and said that changing the leadership of BNB – the governor, deputy governor and governing council – should be the first order of Parliament’s business.
Four days earlier, it was announced that the audits carried out at the Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB), which was put under special supervision by the central bank on June 20, had found that the bank’s books are full of impaired assets, requiring a write-down of 4.22 billion leva (about 2.16 billion euro).
Borissov said that he could not imagine that 4.2 billion leva simply had vanished. “I strongly doubt the authenticity of the BNB report on CCB”.
“According to the legislation, everything is in BNB’s hands, and they are blatantly delaying a concrete decision and have done nothing over the past three months for this case.
“I can not imagine that 4.2 billion leva would just vanish and at the same time BNB gave a licence to Victoria as CCB’s subsidiary, because CCB’s condition was excellent.”
The central bank allowed CCB to buy Credit Agricole Bulgaria, later renamed Victoria Bank, in May 2014, just weeks before CCB was put into BNB conservatorship.
“If we end up giving taxpayers’ money for rescuing the bank, we would demand all people guilty for the situation to be named and to be punished. It is impossible to go through the biggest crisis without having a single Bulgarian bank in serious difficulties, and after the crisis to allow a bank to be shaken in such a way,” Borissov said.
Asked whether the government would provide a guarantee for the full payment of deposits in the bank, Borissov said that he would respond if he becomes prime minister.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
