Bulgarian National Bank takes measures to tighten lending

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) adopted amendments to Ordinance No 21 on minimum required reserves that banks maintain with the Bulgarian National Bank. The amendments include:

1. Effective from 1 June 2023, the percentage of the minimum required reserves on funds attracted from non-residents is increased from 5 to 10 per cent.
2. Effective from 1 July 2023, the percentage of the minimum required reserves on funds attracted from residents and non-residents is increased from 10 to 12 per cent.

Current macroeconomic developments are characterised by accelerating consumer price growth rates, high private sector wage growth, strong consumer demand and continued high household credit growth.

The continuation of these trends poses potential risks to the resilience of the banking system and to the BNB's main objective of maintaining price stability, the central bank said.

In an environment of significant inflows of attracted resources into the banking system, high liquidity and competition in the banking sector, there is a weak and slow transmission from the rise in euro area key interest rates to deposit and lending rates in Bulgaria.

Taking into account the slow and weak transmission of the European Central Bank's monetary policy changes and the limited effects of the increases in the countercyclical capital buffer undertaken by the BNB on lending activity, the increase in reserve requirements is aimed at tightening monetary conditions in the country.

The measure will draw down some of the current excess liquidity in the banking system and contribute to reducing the spare resources available to banks to lend, creating incentives for a faster and more significant pass-through of higher monetary policy rates in the euro zone into the cost of credit.

A slowdown in lending activity would help to gradually reduce the rate of inflation through its impact on borrowing-financed consumption. In addition, a reduction in the growth rate of credit would contribute to reducing credit risk in the banking system.