SOFIA (AFP) – Bulgaria’s fourth largest private lender, which last month came close to sparking a fresh banking crisis in the EU’s poorest country, is to close, the central bank said Friday.
On June 20 the central bank shuttered temporarily Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) after doubts about its solvency led panicked customers to try to empty their accounts.
This and rumours about another bank sparked concerns of a repeat of Bulgaria’s devastating banking crisis of 1996-7 but the situation has since stabilised.
CCB’s assets of 3.7 billion euros ($5.0 billion) will be transferred to a subsidiary, Credit Agricole Bulgaria, a former unit of the French bank Credit Agricole that will be nationalised.
Central bank governor Ivan Iskrov said that documents related to 3.5 billion leva (1.8 billion euros, $2.4 billion) in loans made by CCB are missing and have “probably been destroyed”.