Maya Georgieva, executive director of First Investment Bank, agreed to answer some questions for Profit.bg.

First Investment Bank went public last year, can you define 2007 as a successful period for the bank?

2007 was more than successful for FIB. Return on capital after taxes reached 20.54%, liquidity stood at 29.92% at the end of the year, capital adequacy was 13% and diversification of revenues came to 68%, according to preliminary unaudited data.

The IPO was very successful and it made the bank's activity more transparent. This has been reflected by international rating agencies. In November Moody's raised FIB's outlook and Hitch confirmed FIB's rating in spite of downgrading the country's ratings.

Transparency for us is of utmost importance and that is why I would like to point out that First Investment Bank is the only bank in Bulgaria rated by 2 leading agencies and with 2 complete audits from KPMG (a 6-month and an annual audit).

This is something our international partners know very well and in October 2007 (while the global markets were hit by a financial crisis) 22 leading banks participated in a syndicated loan to us. Moreover, the price we paid was much better than in 2006.

During the past year FIB continued developing retail banking activity and achieved a 6.6% market share in mortgage crediting in the country. We have established ourselves as an innovative bank with high-quality service to our customers.

The age profile of our customers proves that – 80% are below 55 years of age, and 36% are below 35. This makes us very proud as we can safely say that Bulgaria's future is in FIB. Last year we won the “Client's choice of bank” award for the third year in a row.

What is the annual growth of assets and the bank's financial result for the past year?

The total value of assets stood at 4.2 bln leva (2.14 bln euros), which is 33.5% up from the previous year. Deposits from non-financial institutions rose 46.3% to 2.5 bln leva (1.278 bln euros), and profit soared 74.5% to a little over 51 mln (26.07 mln euros).

Market share is of great importance for us. We have always been a leading bank in corporate crediting with an 8% share of the market. In the area of deposits by non-financial institutions our share reaches 8.4%. We also have a firm position in the card business, where we hold 10% of the market.

Can you make any prognoses as to what financial results investors can expect to see this year?

Since the bank's establishment in 1993 the average annual growth of profit has been 24.6%, 25% of capital, 31.7% for assets and 28.8% for deposits. I think FIB will be maintaining this growth pace even with the current unfavorable state of global markets.

We will continue to work on the development of corporate crediting with an accent on small and medium enterprises. Retail banking is also among our priority areas. This year we will focus on it by opening offices in small neighborhoods in order to make our services more comfortable for a larger number of people. Quality service is also of great importance for us, we have planned various training programs for our personnel, which will be performed by leading foreign experts and we will introduce monitoring by the secret shopper method.

We will focus on increasing revenues from fees and commissions in order to improve the bank's risk profile and to achieve a better diversification of revenues.

There are rumors that the bank may soon be sold. Has a foreign or a Bulgarian institution expressed such an interest?

We are also hearing such rumors. Of course there will be interested parties in the largest Bulgarian-owned bank. I have not been informed of an official position and anyway, this is something that concerns main shareholders.