Pavlova Urges Top-Level Change at BNB if GERB Wins Snap Vote

GERB has called for drastic reforms and replacement of the central bank’s governing council should the party win majority in the upcoming snap vote.

Lilyana Pavlova, former Regional Development Minister in the GERB cabinet (2009-2013) on Tuesday told Nova TV that the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) were the bodies most responsible for the current crisis at Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB).

“There should be a change in BNB’s leadership,” said Pavlova, adding that controls over banking operations in Bulgaria should be improved with the help of the European Central Bank.

Bulgaria's President, political leaders and other officials agreed last month that Bulgaria should take immediate steps to join Europe's Single Supervisory Mechanism and submit itself to a peer review from the European Banking Authority. The consultations were called after the BNB put KTB under special supervision in June following a deposits run, freezing its operations and ordering an audit of its books.

In 2009, Bulgaria’s parliament re-elected the BNB Governor Ivan Iskrov for a second six-year term that began on October 10 the same year.

According to the results of a recent survey by Bulgarian polling agency AFIS, GERB would win 24.6% of the vote, followed by the Bulgarian Socialist Party with 17.8%, and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms with 7.9%.

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