← Back to regulators

🇧🇬Bulgaria · EU member

Bulgarian National Bank

BNB · Central bank
Sofiabnb.bg
Compare with another regulator
Activity Index
68/ 100
MeasuredMethodology →

FY2025 · as of 31 December 2025Published figures unless marked

Employees957whole institution
Annual budget≈€174.4moperating costs · whole institutionEstimate
Supervised entities38FY2025

Overview

The Bulgarian National Bank is Bulgaria's central bank and, since the country's euro adoption on 1 January 2026, a full member of the Eurosystem, with its Governor sitting on the ECB Governing Council. It is the prudential authority for Bulgaria's banks — supervised jointly with the ECB under the Single Supervisory Mechanism since the 2020 close-cooperation framework — and for payment and electronic money institutions. The changeover itself ran to plan: by February 2026 roughly 85% of lev banknotes and coins had been withdrawn and over €7 billion in euro cash put into circulation, with a limited, temporary price effect of around 0.3–0.4 percentage points in January monthly inflation, per joint ECB–BNB preliminary analysis. Everything below is BNB's own data, from its official publications.

BNB is an integrated central bank. The staff figure covers the whole institution, including monetary policy, currency and reserve management functions alongside supervision, and is not directly comparable with standalone supervisory authorities.

Regulated sectors

3
BanksPayment institutionsE-money institutions

Figures as published by Bulgarian National Bank for FY2025. Source: BNB Annual Report page (Bulgarian / English) (FY2025 annual report publication unconfirmed at 1 Aug 2026). Data as of 31 December 2025. Supplementary: Governor's euro-accession speech, ESM, 11 December 2025.

Leadership

1
Dimitar Radev

Governorsince 2015

Full board

Organisation (FY2025)

Employees
957Whole-institution basis; not supervision capacity
Operating costs
≈€174.4mWhole institution
Estimate

Supervised entities (FY2025)

Credit institutions
2317 locally licensed banks + 6 foreign bank branches; jointly with ECB under the SSM
E-money institutions
9
Payment institutions
4
Account information service providers
2

Euro adoption — 1 January 2026

Eurosystem entry
1 January 2026BNB became a full ECB shareholder; Governor joined the ECB Governing Council; new Eurosystem-format balance sheet replaced the Issuing/Banking Department publications
Lev cash withdrawal
~85% by mid-February 2026>€7 billion in euro cash issued
Estimate
Changeover price effect
~0.3–0.4 pp (January 2026 monthly inflation)Preliminary ECB–BNB expert analysis; limited and temporary
Estimate
January 2026 HICP inflation
~2.3% y/yNSI/Eurostat preliminary estimates cited by BNB
Estimate

Reserves and supervision 2025

Gold reserves
Increased in 2025Additional purchases during 2025; net creditor position in the Eurosystem at entry
Banking supervision
SSM memberBulgarian banks under joint ECB–BNB supervision since 2020 close cooperation; euro entry completed the integration

Notable 2025–2026

Euro adoption
Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 after nearly 30 years of a currency board — BNB frames the currency board, ERM II and Banking Union years as the long preparation that made the changeover work.
Entered with increased gold reserves
And a net creditor position.
Measured price effect
~0.3–0.4 pp in January monthly inflation was limited and temporary, per joint ECB–BNB analysis.
Estimate
Low public debt-to-GDP
One of the lowest ratios in Europe underpinned the accession case.

Key legislation

3
Law on the Bulgarian National Bank

Central-bank statute

Law on Credit Institutions

Banking (CRD/CRR)

Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems

PSD2 / EMD transposition

Registers, portals and publications

Application portals

BNB e-services
Data as of 31 December 2025 · Source: bnb.bg + ComplyBridge researchActivity Index methodology →