Typically for Eastern European countries, Bulgarian banking sector is characterized by relatively small size, small number of banks with wide business focus, high degree of concentration and high share of foreign capital.
The most commonly used ratio to measure the size of a banking sector, namely the ratio of consolidated banking assets to gross domestic product, for Bulgaria shows that its banking sector is roughly the same size as its national economy (the ratio is 107.09%). Most of the banks operating in Bulgaria are universal banks providing products and services in retail and corporate banking. Although there are no pure direct banks in Bulgaria, all banks offer their services via the Internet. There are also several digital-first banks that offer their services mainly online. Bulgaria is also part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and TARGET systems.
Since 1 October 2020 Bulgaria is part of European Banking Union and since 10 July 2020 it is participant into ERM II Mechanism, a step before adopting the Euro as a national currency.
The following is a list of banks in Bulgaria.