Bulgaria's Postbank and DZI Bank announced on November 6 their official merger, Bulgarian News Agency BTA reported.

The new bank's name was  Eurobank EFG Group, but for now the trade mark Postbank would be used as clients were more used to it, Eurobank EFG's CEO and member of the Board of directors Anthony Hassiotis said.

Hassiotis explained the merger process had begun in December 2006 when Postbank had taken over DZI Bank's management, acquiring 90 per cent of it. In March 2007 a new housing credit with the same terms for clients of both banks had been introduced, he said, adding that in June 2007 the two banks had been merged from an operative prospective.

The international banking organization Eurobank EFG Group was founded in 1990. It was headquartered in Geneva and its main goal was to become the most preferred bank in New Europe, Piergiorgio Pradelli, general manager of Eurobank EFG Bulgaria in the International Operations department explained. The organization has established its presence in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, and since 2006 – in Poland, Turkey, Ukraine and Cyprus.

After the merger with DZI Bank Postbank owns 10 per cent of the market share. It had over 3 000 employees, over 1 million clients, and 264 branches in the country, CFO of Eurobank EFG Bulgaria Petia Dimitrova said.

The merged bank's assets were 3.1 billion euro, registering a 40 per cent growth for the first nine months of 2007, Dimitrova said. Postbank's credits increased by 60 per cent over the same period, from 1.3 billion to 2.3 billion euro, and its deposits by 30 per cent, from 1.1 to 1.5 billion euro.

Postbank was the first bank to introduce an internship programmes for graduated students, executive director Assen Yagodin said. Since 2003 over 350 young people have been interns at the bank and half of them are currently employees.