RAIFFEISENBANK
Applicants for Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria consumer loans were only required to show their identity cards, the bank said. The lender requires neither income papers, nor guarantors. It provides up to 30 000 leva for a period from one to 10 years. The interest rate is set on a case-to-case basis and all loan applicants are charged a promotional zero application fee.

TRANSCARD
Bulgarian credit card operator TransCard has reshuffled its board of directors and reported its nine-month results. Revenue totalled 2.9 million leva for January-September 2007, a decrease of nine per cent year-on-year.

EXPRESSBANK
Societe Generale Expressbank increased the ceiling of its Expresso consumer loan without guarantor to 30 000 leva. Eligible borrowers are expected to pay their wage in an account with the bank. The bank provides an answer on each application in 15 minutes.

COMPANY LOANS
The value of loans taken up by companies in Bulgaria in the period April-August 2007 increased four-fold compared with the same period a year ago, according to data from Bulgarian National Bank. Company loans for the first eight months of 2007 exceeded 3.6 billion leva, up from 917 million leva for January-August 2006. Household loans jumped by 2.2 billion leva for April-August 2007 compared with an 890 million leva increase for the same period in 2006. The rise was mainly driven by to the decrease in unemployment and the increase in wages.

REPORT ON CURRENT  ACCOUNT
Bulgaria’s current account (CA) deficit may reach 22-23 per cent of the GDP for 2007, exceeding both our earlier projection of 20 per cent and the government’s official forecast of 21 per cent, Raiffeisen Group said in its October report on Bulgaria. The good news was that foreign direct investments coverage of the CA deficit remained at 100 per cent for the period January-September. “This is the most welcome and sound way of funding a CA gap, since it does not create debt or rely on portfolio investment that may be withdrawn rapidly,” the report said. Raiffeisen also raised its forecast for the country’s 2007 budget surplus to two per cent of GDP from its previous projection of 1.5 per cent.

S&P RATINGS
On November 26 Standard & Poor’s (S&P) confirmed the long-term rating of Bulgaria at BBB+ with a stable outlook and the short-term credit rating in foreign and local currency at A-2, the Finance Ministry said. According to S&P, Bulgaria’s labour market required measures related to eliminating its inflexibility, while the growing non-compliances in qualifications showed the need for reforms in the education system.

BNB’S ASSETS
The foreign exchange assets of the Bulgarian National Bank’s issue department totalled 23.879 billion leva on November 23, up 1.1 per cent from the previous week.