Bulgarian banks - on the brink?

The European Commission earlier this week approved 1.7 billion euros in credit from Bulgaria’s central bank to boost the liquidity of the country’s banks, after savers in one of the four largest commercial banks, First Investment Bank, rushed to withdraw their deposits following rumours about the bank’s insolvency. This was the second bank run in two weeks, after Corporate Commercial Bank experienced similar problems. Control Risks' eastern Europe analyst, Cvete Koneska, discusses the outlook for Bulgaria and its banking sector.

About the presenter

Cvete Koneska is Control Risks’ lead analyst for Southeast Europe. She is responsible for providing security, political and operational risk analysis on countries in the region, providing regular contributions to Control Risks' subscription publications and advising clients on political and security risk factors impacting their investments.

Prior to joining Control Risks, Cvete completed a DPhil degree in politics at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, where she researched factors driving success in post-conflict policy-making in the Balkans. Her book After Ethnic Conflict is due to be published in November 2014.