Bulgarian Supervision Chief Gets Nod Amid Pre-Euro Bank Checks

(Bloomberg) -- Bulgarian lawmakers approved the appointment of a deputy central bank governor in charge of supervision, who will help conduct the review of the Balkan country’s lenders as it seeks to advance on the path toward euro adoption.

Lawmakers voted unanimously to appoint Radoslav Milenkov, the head of the national deposit-insurance fund, to take over bank oversight from Dimitar Kostov, who resigned earlier this month. Six of Bulgaria’s banks are undergoing an assessment by the European Central Bank as the country is seeking to enter the pre-euro exchange rate mechanism, known as ERM-2, along with the European Union’s banking union this year.

The EU’s poorest nation fulfills the formal criteria to become the euro region’s 20th member: it has low public debt, a budget surplus and pegs the lev to the single currency. But with banking scandals raging in eastern Europe, new euro candidates face additional demands such as banking union membership. The EU has urged Bulgaria to improve supervision and fighting money laundering.

To contact the reporter on this story: Slav Okov in Sofia at sokov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andras Gergely, Piotr Bujnicki

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