Bulgaria’s largest bank says 295 million leva in cash accepted at its branches in three days
From January 12 to 14, branches of Bulgaria’s largest bank – DSK Bank – accepted 295 million leva in cash, the bank said on January 16.
The report was posted at the approximate mid-point between Bulgaria adopting the euro as its currency and the end of the temporary transition period in which both leva and euro are legal tender in the country.
From February 1, only the euro will be legal tender in Bulgaria, though after that date, it will still be possible to exchange leva for euro at banks.
DSK Bank said that from January 12 to 14, cash currency exchange reached an average of about 67 million leva a day, with an average amount of 4600 leva per transaction.
By comparison, in the first business days of January, its clients exchanged an average of about 3500 leva, the bank said.
More than 63 000 individual clients were served in the bank’s branch network from January 12 to 14.
In just three days, DSK Bank’s offices processed nearly 10.9 million coins with a total weight of more than 46 tons, as well as over 5.1 million banknotes.
Along with cashier operations, customers are also actively using self-service channels.
From January 10–14, more than 61.5 million leva was deposited through DSK Bank’s cash-in ATMs, with nearly 49 000 operations and an average amount of one deposit of about 1260 leva.
At the same time, nearly 100 million euro were withdrawn from ATMs through over 360 000 withdrawals, with the average amount per withdrawal being 280 euro, DSK Bank said.
“The transition to the new currency in our country was extremely successful and will serve as an example for other countries ,” Iliya Lingorski, a member of the governing board of central Bulgarian National Bank, told Nova Televizia on January 17.
Lingorski admitted that in the first days there were some misunderstandings – document requests, attempts to charge fees or different interpretations of the rules by individual bank branches.
However, all reports were examined and the problems were resolved within the first week, he said.
(Archive photo: Interior Ministry)
