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Explore capabilities →Employees
957
· whole institutionFY2025
Annual budget
≈€174.4m
· operating costs · whole institutionFY2025
Supervised entities
38
FY2025
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 The changeover itself ran to plan: by February 2026 roughly 85% of lev banknotes and coins had been withdrawn and over €7 billion in euro cash put into circulation, with a limited, temporary price effect of around 0.3–0.4 percentage points in January monthly inflation,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. This 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
Leadership
- Dimitar RadevGovernor · since 2015
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.
Organisation (FY2025)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Employees | 957 Whole-institution basis; not supervision capacity |
| Operating costs | ≈€174.4m Whole institution |
Supervised entities (FY2025)
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Credit institutions | 23 17 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
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Eurosystem entry | 1 January 2026 BNB 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 |
| Changeover price effect | ~0.3–0.4 pp (January 2026 monthly inflation) Preliminary ECB–BNB expert analysis; limited and temporary |
| January 2026 HICP inflation | ~2.3% y/y NSI/Eurostat preliminary estimates cited by BNB |
Reserves and supervision 2025
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Gold reserves | Increased in 2025 Additional purchases during 2025; net creditor position in the Eurosystem at entry |
| Banking supervision | SSM member Bulgarian banks under joint ECB–BNB supervision since 2020 close cooperation; euro entry completed the integration |
Notable 2025–2026
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 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. |
| Low public debt-to-GDP | One of the lowest ratios in Europe underpinned the accession case. |
Key legislation
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
Public registers
Application portals
Recent publications
- Governor's euro-accession speech, ESM
2025-12-11
- ECB blog on Bulgaria's Eurosystem entry
2026-02-06