MONEY TRANSFERS
On October 7, Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) issued licences for six money transfer companies to operate in the country and rejected the applications of three others. BNB licensed the Bulgarian units of US MoneyGram Payment Systems and Coinstar Money Transfer; Spanish Master Envios Unidos; and Bulgarian-owned Bankservice, an electronic interbank settlement system operator jointly owned by the central bank and the commercial banks operating in Bulgaria; M Secured, previously named Fiksus; and Spanish-owned Change-Centre Bulgaria.

HEALTH INSURER
Bulgaria’s Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) said that it had licensed Health Insurance Fund Europe (ZOF Europe) to operate as the country’s 18th voluntary health insurer, wire agency SeeNews reported on October 7. The health insurance company is 54.4 per cent-owned by local chemical equipment producer Himmash and the remaining equity is owned by private persons, the FSC said.

CHASING OFFERS
In their desire to shore up customer bases by offering high interest rates on new deposits, Bulgarian banks encouraged customers to chase after the best offer available, with deposit shoppers, who shift their money around in search of the highest return being easily governed by rumours and eroding market stability, Bulgarian National Bank said in its quarterly market review, as reported by Bulgarian daily Dnevnik. Growing deposit rates were putting pressure on people who had outstanding loans, as soaring prices of both new and outstanding loans were digging deeper in their pockets.

NAME CHANGE
Pari daily reported on October 8 that a change of name of Economic and Investment Bank PLC’s is to be discussed at a special meeting of shareholders with the participation of the bank’s chief executive Petar Andronov. The proposed new name is CIBANK PLC.