European Central Bank marks Bulgaria’s euro adoption as Bulgarian National Bank joins the Eurosystem and becomes a full Single Supervisory Mechanism member

The European Central Bank announced that the euro has entered into circulation in Bulgaria, making it the 21st euro area Member State, and that the Bulgarian National Bank has joined the Eurosystem with its governor taking a seat on the ECB’s Governing Council. The Bulgarian National Bank also became a full member of the Single Supervisory Mechanism following a period of close cooperation that began in October 2020. The change follows the formal July decision that set an official conversion rate of BGN 1.95583 per EUR 1. Under banking supervision, the ECB is responsible for directly supervising four significant institutions in Bulgaria and overseeing 17 less significant institutions, including bank licensing and assessments of buyers of qualifying holdings; the Bulgarian National Bank has a representative on the ECB’s Supervisory Board. The Bulgarian National Bank paid the remainder of its contribution to the ECB’s capital and transferred its contribution to the ECB’s foreign reserve assets, while Bulgarian counterparties will be able to participate in ECB open market operations announced after 1 January 2026 and eligible Bulgarian assets will be added to the euro area list of eligible collateral. Bulgaria also joined the Eurosystem’s TARGET services T2, T2S, TIPS and ECMS, with all services active, and the new system of rotating voting rights in the ECB’s Governing Council entered into force. The ECB will publish shortly a list of Bulgarian credit institutions and branches subject to reserve requirements, as well as lists of branches of Bulgarian credit institutions located in other euro area Member States.