History
The foundation meeting of the Bank’s shareholders was held on December 22, 1995, and BACB was registered with the Sofia City Court pursuant to a court resolution dated December 3, 1996. The founder of the Bank is the Bulgarian American Enterprise Fund (BAEF). BAEF is a private corporation established in the US pursuant to the United States Support for East European Democracy Act 1989 (the SEED Act), the primary aim of which is to encourage the entrepreneurship and to support the development of the former communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe. Under the SEED Act the BAEF was granted USD 57.8 million to invest in Bulgaria for the purposes of promoting the development of the private sector by supporting small- and medium-sized businesses in different sectors of the economy.
Initially, the Bank was granted a limited banking license by BNB. The limited license of BACB restricted its aggregate amount of loan extended up to the amount of the debt and equity funds provided by its shareholders. The first two lending programs were targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses and at the tourism sector. In 1998 the banking license was expanded and included permission for lending in amount greater than the funding received from BAEF as well as to perform wide range of banking services.
Subsequently, the revised banking license in 2009 includes all banking services as per the Credit Institutions Act (CIA) with the exception of services relating to the issuing and management of bank cards, renting safe deposit boxes and issuing electronic money.
In 1999, BACB established a lending program for extending mortgage loans to individuals. In 2002 the Bank launched a lending program for extending loans to construction entrepreneurs. In the same year, the Bank received a license for investment intermediary and became a member of the “Central Depository” AD and the “Bulgarian Stock Exchange-Sofia” AD (BSE).
In April 2006, the controlling shareholder of the Bank at this moment - BAEF - sold around 30% from the capital of BACB through secondary public offering of shares executed on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange and the Bank received the status of a public company. Subsequently, BAEF decreased additionally its shareholding in the Bank to 53.89% by selling shares at BSE.
On August 29, 2008, after obtaining the required approvals from the authorities in Bulgaria and Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c., (AIB) acquired 49.99% of the voting stock of BACB and the participation of BAEF was accordingly decreased to 3.89%. Subsequently, BAEF transferred its residual shareholding of 3.89% to America for Bulgaria Foundation.
In 2009 the Bank and its wholly owned subsidiary “Capital Direct” EAD established a special purpose vehicle “Imoti Direct” REIT for securitization of real estate. With Decision №78 – DSIC from February 5, 2010, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) issued a license to “Imoti Direct” REIT to securitize real estate as a special investment purpose company. As of June 30, 2011, the share capital of the entity is BGN 21 million divided into 2,100,000 shares of BGN 10 face value each.
On July 17, 2011, Allied Irish Banks, p.l.c. sold its 6,311,100 shares, representing 49.99% from the registered capital of BACB, to CSIF AD (www.csif.bg), a Bulgarian private investment company, after receiving the necessary approvals from Bulgarian authorities.
The hard work in the sphere of customer service, lending and the overall innovative policy of the bank do not remain unnoticed and as a result BACB has won many well-deserved awards and nominations:
- Site of the year in the category “Banks and finances” (BG Site) - 2010
- Site of the year in the category “Finances and insurance” (Bulgarian Web Awards) - 2010
- The most efficient bank of the year (Pari daily) - 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008
- Public Financial Institution in Bulgaria with Best Corporate Governance (Bulgarian Investor Association) - 2009
- The best bank in Bulgaria by ROA (Finance Central Europe) - 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009
- The best bank in Bulgaria by ROE (Finance Central Europe) - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
- First Prize for Best Managed Company in Bulgaria (Euromoney CEE) - 2006
- Most Convincing and Coherent Strategy in CEE, 3 place (Euromoney CEE) - 2006
- Best in Banking and Finance in CEE, 3 place (Euromoney CEE) - 2006
- Most Transperent Accounts in CEE, 2 place (Euromoney CEE) - 2006
- Largest companies on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange rating, 9-th place (Dnevnik daily) - 2008