Banks in Bulgaria: Accounts for Companies, Licensed Firms and Non-Residents

A company in Bulgaria meets its bank three times, and each meeting rests on a different rule. Before the company or a financial licence exists, a bank receives the founders' capital and certifies it. After registration, a bank opens the operating account once it has identified the company, its managers and its beneficial owners. A payment institution, an e-money institution or a crypto-asset service provider then needs a further account in which its clients' money is kept apart from its own.

Which bank will open the account, what it will ask for and how long it will take depend on those three rules and on the people behind the company. Bank conditions are stated as the banks published them on 24 September 2026, and banks appear in the order of the register kept by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

Concept: three accounts, three legal results

Each account has its own legal basis and its own legal result.

The capital account comes first

Bulgarian company law ties registration to money actually paid. An OOD or EOOD is registered only once the statutory minimum capital is paid in and, where the registered capital is higher, at least 70% of it (Commerce Act art. 119(1)); the minimum is €1 since 1 January 2026. A joint-stock company (AD) needs capital of at least €25,000, and before registration at least a quarter of each share's value is paid in (art. 174(1)) through an escrow account. The bank's note of paid-in capital is among the documents the Registry Agency lists for registration, and for a payment institution (PI) or e-money institution (EMI) the bank's certificate on the escrow account also enters the licence file the BNB reviews.

What follows from the model

Four features set Bulgarian business banking apart.

The bank is the first gatekeeper. Because the capital certificate precedes registration and licensing, no company or licence application can proceed until some bank has accepted and certified the capital, and the origin of the founders' money is first examined there.

The people behind the company decide the channel. Where banks offer remote onboarding, it is built around a Bulgarian-citizen manager, at DSK Bank also Bulgarian-citizen beneficial owners, and at United Bulgarian Bank holders of a Bulgarian personal number (EGN). A company outside those conditions opens its account through a branch, on paper, often with apostilled documents.

Protection depends on who holds the money. The Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF) guarantees up to €100,000 per depositor per bank, but PIs and EMIs are excluded from repayment as financial institutions, and branches of banks from other EU states sit under their home schemes.

Since 1 January 2026 all three accounts run in euro: lev balances were converted, IBANs kept, and settlement moved to TARGET and SEPA.

The figures most often needed at the outset, as at 24 September 2026:

Most rows turn on who the client is, which is why the rules that follow are arranged by account and by client.

Licensed banks and branches

The BNB register of licensed banks, in its edition of 23 March 2026, current on 24 September 2026, lists 17 banks licensed in Bulgaria and 6 branches of foreign banks, 23 in total. Country pages for Serbia and Spain answer the same questions for those markets, and the banks hub maps the rest.

The split between a Bulgarian licence and a branch matters mostly for deposit protection. Banks licensed in Bulgaria belong to BDIF, while branches of banks from other EU member states do not: their deposits are covered by the scheme of the home country. The one branch from outside the EU is on the BDIF list of insured banks.

For a depositor the dividing line is the legal form of the bank's presence: a deposit at an EU branch is protected, but under another country's scheme and procedure.

Banks licensed elsewhere in the EEA may also serve Bulgarian clients without a local presence, under the EU passport. The BNB list of such notifications, dated 10 September 2026, runs to 385 entries, a number of them marked as having ceased activity. The list measures the reach of the passport; the mechanics are set out in EU passporting.

Capital account: from founders' money to registration

The account the founders open first depends on the legal form of the future company and on whether it will apply for a licence. The table compares the three cases on the rule that governs payment.

The third row adds a licensing layer to the first two: the company form still decides the account, but the BNB also asks where the money came from. The payment-institution capital tiers and the rest of the licensing file are set out in EMI and payment institution licences in Bulgaria, and the Lithuanian alternative is compared in EMI in Lithuania or Bulgaria; tax and formation of the company itself are in company in Bulgaria.

For an AD the Act names the instrument. Cash contributions go into an escrow (collection) account opened in the company's name by its board, with each contributor indicated, and if the board does not certify to the bank within three months that the company has been filed for registration, the contributors may take their money back in full (Commerce Act art. 166).

For a PI or EMI the same account becomes licensing evidence. The applicant must be an OOD or AD, registered or in formation, with its capital paid in, of transparent and lawful origin, and with its seat where management actually sits (Payment Services and Payment Systems Act (ZPUPS) art. 10(4), applied to EMIs by art. 37(2)); an EMI needs at least €350,000 (art. 38). BNB Ordinance No 16 asks an applicant in formation for a bank certificate that the cash contributions sit in an escrow account, together with the shareholders' declarations and documents on the origin of the money (arts 3(1) and 23(1)).

One bank's procedure and prices

UniCredit Bulbank publishes both sides of the process. For an OOD or EOOD in formation, the special capital account is opened by the founders or the elected manager, or by a proxy holding an explicit notarised power of attorney. For an AD, a single-member EAD or a partnership limited by shares (KDA) the escrow account is opened by the members of the management or directors' board, or their proxy.

The bank's tariff for legal entities in force from 1 January 2026 prices the accounts as follows.

No fee is charged for closing the capital or escrow account and opening a current account when the client moves on to a current account at the same bank (note 3), so the capital account is usually the first step of an ongoing relationship with the same bank.

Operating account: identification and the choice of channel

The statutory core

Whatever the bank, the identification core comes from the Measures Against Money Laundering Act (ZMIP). The Act sets out what the bank collects for each person it must identify.

The citizenship line matters later: it is the data point on which remote channels and sanctions rules both turn.

The bank's wider review of the company, its owners and its money is described in corporate KYC and source of funds; the Bulgarian AML regime itself, with the Financial Intelligence Directorate and the duties of obliged entities, is the subject of AML in Bulgaria.

AML calendar and FATF status

Three developments frame the AML side of account opening. As of September 2026, Bulgaria remains on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, where it has been since October 2023; in June 2026 the FATF made an initial determination that the action plan is substantially completed and that an on-site assessment is warranted, and no delisting has been decided.

The EU AML Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 applies from 10 July 2027, so until then customer due diligence follows the Bulgarian ZMIP. PSD3 and the Payment Services Regulation are not adopted and not in force: the agreed texts were approved in committee on 5 May 2026 and, as of September 2026, a plenary vote is forecast for 14 December 2026.

Remote or branch

Where a bank offers remote onboarding, the conditions turn on the citizenship or Bulgarian personal number of the people behind the company, and each bank draws the line differently.

DSK states that its online channel opens a business account in up to 20 minutes. Companies outside these conditions open their accounts in person, at a branch.

For a company registered outside Bulgaria, UniCredit Bulbank asks for a certified copy of the current constitutional document and an original official document on registration and current particulars, including the ownership and control structure and the representatives. It also asks for identity documents of legal representatives and beneficial owners, signature specimens, licences where applicable and its KYC questionnaire. Foreign public or notarised documents need an apostille or legalisation, and documents in a foreign language need an official Bulgarian translation.

How long it takes

No statute sets a deadline for opening a business account. The two published figures belong to other situations: DSK's 20 minutes for its online channel, open only to eligible clients, and the 10-day decision period that ZPUPS sets for a consumer's basic payment account. A bank may also end an account relationship later, under the rules set out in bank account closure.

Licensed firms: safeguarding and client-money accounts

A licensed payment firm needs a bank for a different reason than an ordinary company: the law requires it to keep client money outside its own balance sheet.

A PI keeps client funds apart from its own and, if they have not been passed on by the end of the business day after receipt, deposits them in a separate safeguarding account with a bank licensed in a member state or with a member state's central bank. Those funds cannot be attached or enforced against for the PI's debts to anyone other than its payment-service users (ZPUPS art. 23(2)). If the PI becomes insolvent, users' funds are excluded from the insolvency estate and returned by the trustee pro rata (art. 23(3)).

An EMI applies the same measures to funds received in exchange for e-money. Funds paid by card or another payment instrument must be safeguarded once credited and in any case no later than five working days after the e-money is issued (art. 41(1)–(2)).

The account itself is backed by an access rule. Banks and bank branches operating in Bulgaria must open and maintain payment accounts for PIs and EMIs on an objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate basis, and must give the BNB a reasoned opinion on every refusal (ZPUPS arts 27 and 45). The duty does not force a particular bank to say yes, but a refusal leaves a record with the supervisor.

A crypto-asset service provider (CASP) works under MiCA rather than ZPUPS. A CASP that holds clients' funds other than e-money tokens must place them with a credit institution or a central bank by the end of the business day after receipt, in an account separately identifiable from its own (MiCA art. 70(2)–(3)). The rule does not apply to CASPs that are themselves EMIs, PIs or credit institutions (art. 70(5)), which follow their own safeguarding regimes.

Deposit protection: what BDIF covers

Deposit-taking is reserved to banks. An EMI may not accept deposits, and funds a PI receives for payment services are not deposits (ZPUPS arts 40(1) and 22(3)), so the guarantee attaches only to money held at a bank. BDIF's own rules then decide how much of it is protected.

For an EOOD this produces two separate guarantees at the same bank: €100,000 for the company and €100,000 for its owner personally.

The temporary €125,000 limit covers deposits of natural persons from residential real-estate transactions, from marriage or divorce, termination of employment, disability or death, and from insurance or social-security payments or crime-damage compensation. It matters mainly to a seller of a flat, a situation described in buying property in Bulgaria.

Euro, TARGET and instant payments since 1 January 2026

Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026 at the conversion rate of 1.95583 levs to the euro fixed by Council Regulation (EU) 2025/1409. The changeover altered the rails under every account; the BNB's euro questions and answers describe the switch for each type of payment.

Only the instant rail predates the euro. On 3 December 2024 the BNB, the BISERA system, two banks and one e-money institution joined the Eurosystem's TIPS service for SEPA instant credit transfers in euro, and the BNB announced that further payment service providers in Bulgaria would continue joining during 2025.

Basic payment account: a consumer right, not a company one

Bulgarian law does contain a right to a bank account, but it belongs to individuals. A basic payment account under ZPUPS arts 117–121 is available to consumers, meaning natural persons acting outside their trade or profession (ZPUPS § 1 item 40 of the additional provisions). A company account is never a basic payment account.

Every bank licensed in Bulgaria and every branch operating there that provides payment services to consumers must offer the account, in euro since 1 January 2026. It covers opening, use and closing, deposits, cash withdrawals, direct debits, card payments and credit transfers, with no limit on the number of those operations (arts 118 and 119(1)). A bank or branch that serves consumers only exceptionally, and only a limited number and category of them, may be exempt (art. 119(9)).

Consumers lawfully resident in the EU, including those without a fixed address, asylum seekers and persons who cannot be expelled, are entitled to the account. The bank must open it or refuse within 10 days of receiving all required documents (art. 119(2)–(3)), and may not discriminate on grounds of nationality or residence (art. 117(1)). Fees must be nil or reasonable: lower than the BNB-published average for the same services and lower than the bank's own tariff for other consumer accounts (art. 120).

The three access regimes compare as follows.

The founder of an EOOD can therefore rely on the basic account personally, if lawfully resident in the EU, but not for the company. Sanctions law applies to this account as to any other: for a Russian national without EU, EEA or Swiss nationality or a residence permit there, the art. 5b limits reach the basic account too, including the ban on issuing a payment card (Commission FAQ on deposits, question 34), and whether a given document counts as a residence permit is a matter of national law (question 29). Accounts for individuals abroad more generally are described in personal bank accounts.

Non-EU owners and managers

The owner's nationality and residence enter the file in two ways. Through KYC they decide the channel, because the bank records every citizenship and the country of residence. Through EU sanctions law they can cap the deposits and exclude certain services, and here the logic is set by one regulation.

The deposit cap and its limits

Art. 5b(1) of Regulation 833/2014 prohibits EU credit institutions from accepting deposits from the persons in the left column once that depositor's total deposits at the credit institution exceed €100,000.

The cap is counted per credit institution, not per account. The art. 5b(3) exemption covers natural persons only; it does not extend to legal persons, but an EU-incorporated company does not need it, because the ownership limb reaches only entities established outside the Union. In the Commission's reading, a company established outside the EU and more than 50% owned by a Russian national who holds EU, EEA or Swiss nationality or a residence permit there is not caught by the ownership limb either; this does not apply to entities established in Russia (Commission FAQ on deposits, question 43).

The cap bites on new deposits: balances held when it took effect may stay but cannot be increased above €100,000, and interest or dividends are not credited once the cap is exceeded (questions 14, 17 and 26). National authorities may authorise specific deposits under art. 5c(1), for example for basic needs, legal fees or non-prohibited EU–Russia trade. For an EOOD with a Russian owner, the Commission expects banks to apply enhanced due diligence, and money that an owner without the art. 5b(3) status pays into the company's account personally may count as that owner's deposit (questions 27 and 36).

The carve-out for EU companies starts only at registration. Before that the company does not yet exist (Commerce Act art. 67), and contributions on an AD's escrow account are recorded against each contributor and returnable to them (art. 166). A founder without the art. 5b(3) status who pays in more than €100,000 at one bank before registration, such as the €350,000 of an EMI, therefore risks meeting the cap.

Ownership of a crypto firm is a separate rule. Art. 5b(2a) bars Russian nationals and residents of Russia without the art. 5b(3) status from owning, controlling or sitting on the governing bodies of an EU legal person providing crypto-asset wallet, account or custody services since 18 January 2024, and any crypto-asset service under MiCA since 25 August 2026. Its effect on a Bulgarian application is set out in the CASP licence, and the wider map in sanctions.

Documents for a foreign individual

Banks publish their document requirements for individuals by nationality and residence status. UniCredit Bulbank's account-opening leaflet (last modified 21 October 2025) sets them out in three columns.

A Bulgarian residence permit replaces the second identity document and the proof of address, but not the document explaining why the account is needed. Documents in a foreign language without an English translation need an official Bulgarian translation, and the bank may ask for more.

For a founder moving with the business, relocation from Russia covers the personal side, and money transfers to and from Russia the payment routes that art. 5b(2) leaves open.

Typical profiles

The rules above combine differently for each kind of client. The table maps five common profiles to the account route, what the bank asks for and the limits that apply.

The route is set by who stands behind the company and whether it holds client money; the choice of bank follows from that.