06 January
Bulgarian FinMin to meet banks about cost of borrowing
Bulgarian Finance Minister Simeon Dyankov is to meet commercial banks and central Bulgarian National Bank to ask banks to reduce interest rates on loans, mass-circulation daily 24 Chassa said on January 5 2012.
Dyankov was quoted as saying in an interview that he was aware that he could not interfere with banks' policy but wanted an explanation why loans in Bulgaria were so expensive.
He said that the Government had done everything it could and now it was the banks' turn to act in order for interest rates on loans to be reduced.
The previous day, interviewed by daily Sega, the head of the Association of Banks in Bulgaria and CEO of UniCredit Bulbank, Levon Hampartzoumian, said, "We have made many proposals on how to improve the financial environment.
"There has not been significant progress in this regard so far, in spite of the measures undertaken by the Government. We and the Government have not specified particular conditions regarding the environment. If we had, this would mean we are in a country similar to North Korea for example," he was quoted as saying, according to local news agency Focus.
"This match was played in Bulgaria for the past 50 years, but it was supposed to be over by now," Hampartzoumian said, adding that there can be administrative regulation on interest rates "only in a communist country".
by The Sofia Echo staff
