Latvia’s Regionala Investiciju Banka (RIB) entered the Bulgarian market by opening a branch in the Black Sea city of Varna, Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik quoted Bulgarian National Bank on November 13 2009 as saying.

The Bulgarian office of the Latvian investment bank has been registered as a branch, not as a subsidiary, Dnevnik said.

Officially the bank started work in the country on October 1 2009, with Krassen Kostov as its manager.

"Our Customer proposals and requests have been the main reasons why we took the decision to open a branch in Varna". Alexander Kuperman, deputy chairman of the RIB board was quoted as saying on RIB's website.

"Varna is a sea port just like Riga or Odessa, and our customers own terminals, grain storages and other business facilities located there. So we will provide services to their businesses in Varna. We are following our customers' needs and our branch in Varna proves it."

RIB was granted its licence in Latvia in September 2001 and in 2005 the bank opened a representative office in Odessa in the Ukraine. In December 2007, the bank opened a representative office in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk.

Ukrainian joint-stock bank Pivdennyi is the main shareholder in the bank and owns 91.18 per cent of the shares of the bank.

RIB's enters the Bulgarian market following the news in the summer that Romanian lender Bank Leumi, a unit of Israeli Bank Leumi, decided to close its Bulgarian office in Sofia, while at the same time Cyprus-based Marfin Bank put on hold its plans to set up a Bulgarian branch, Dnevnik said.

Currently there are 24 commercial banks and six branches of foreign banks registered to operate in Bulgaria.