16 Bulgarian banks controlled assets worth more than 1 billion leva at the end of 2008.

At the end of 2007 their number was the same. The only difference is that Municipal Bank fell out of the list and ProCredit Bank joined it.

Unicredit still tops the chart, according to official data presented by the Bulgarian National Bank. The lender saw its assets grow by 21.5% to 11.01 bln leva (5.62 bln euros).

DSK Bank is second, followed by UBB. Top 5 also includes Raifeissen and Eurobank EFG.

Number six in the overall list and number one among the publicly traded banks is FIBank, which controls assets worth 4.25 billion leva (2.17 bln euros). Corporate Commercial Bank is 10th, followed by EIBank and CCB.

Bulgarian-American Credit Bank is 18th in the overall list and fifth among banks listed on BSE with 818 million leva.

Emporiki Bank saw the largest hike in assets last year (by 96.6%). Second and third here are Bulgarian Development Bank and MKB Unionbank. Alpha Bank and SG Expressbank both boosted assets by a little over 40%.

Assets of the banking system rose by 17.72% to 69.56 bln leva (35.5 bln euros) in 2008.

№ Bank 2008* 2007* Change 1 Unicredit Bulbank 11014859 9065733 21,50% 2 DSK Bank 8669280 7848685 10,46% 3 UBB 7745809 6129586 26,37% 4 Raiffeissen 6880189 5979390 15,07% 5 Eurobank EFG 5437869 4377303 24,23% 6 FIB 4256134 4205076 1,21% 7 Piraeus 4142232 3566983 16,13% 8 SG Expressbank 2512886 1793256 40,13% 9 Alpha Bank 2144643 1465676 46,32% 10 Corporate Commercial Bank 2105879 1772123 18,83% 11 Eibank 1844058 1982399 -6,98% 12 Central Cooperative Bank 1663314 1565351 6,26% 13 Alianz Bank Bulgaria 1627796 1464071 11,18% 14 Unionbank 1535222 1026150 49,61% 15 Investbank 1118136 1085721 2,99% 16 ProCredit Bank 1005526 846658 18,76% 17 Municipal Bank 995395 1013069 -1,74% 18 BACB 818045 689632 18,62% 19 Paribas 745453 549402 35,68% 20 International Asset Bank 568782 523276 8,70% 21 ING Bank 478526 403820 18,50% 22 Emporiki Bank 470393 239225 96,63% 23 Bulgarian Development Bank 430752 233467 84,50% 24 City Bank 386711 442455 -12,60% 25 Tokuda Bank 340576 301326 13,03% 26 Commercial Bank D 295069 223194 32,20% 27 NLB West East Bank 218344 196601 11,06% 28 Texim Bank 51498 58994 -12,71% 29 T.C. Ziraat Bankasi 48068 40881 17,58% 30 Leumi Bank Romania 9011 0

Total 69560455 59089503 17,72%

Source: Bulgarian National Bank

*Assets in BGN