Bulgaria is in a vacuum. Two of its largest banks have experienced a run on their institutions, the government has resigned and parliament is dissolved. The national bank deposit guarantee fund has a shortage of some Lv1.64bn (€839m) to cover the population’s guaranteed deposits with one of the country's banks, which has been placed under special supervision and seems to have shortcomings. Still, no solution is expected until after the parliamentary elections on October 5.
This, in short, explains the situation in Bulgaria, but the complications are a lot more wide-reaching. Rewind to June, and the country’s fourth largest bank by assets with a market share of 7.9%, Corporate Commercial Bank (or KTB as it is known in Bulgaria), saw its customers queue outside its branches to try to withdraw their deposits.
