Assets of the Bulgarian banking system stand at 74.22 billion leva (37.9 bln euro) as of 31 March 2011., compared with 71.38 billion leva (36.4 bln euro) a year ago, Bulgarian National Bank's statistics reveals.

The biggest bank in Bulgaria in terms of assets in Unicredit Bulbank (11.296 billion leva or 5.7 bln euro), followed by DSK Bank, United Bulgarian Bank, Raiffeisenbank and Post Bank.

The first four however are seeing their assets depreciating by between 1.75 and 6.47%, while Post Bank reports a hike of 4.43%.

Medium and small banks are strengthening their positions due to their high activity. The five biggest banks control 53.9% of the total asset value of the country's banking system.

The remaining 10 banks saw their assets appreciate. The smallest hike is reported by SG Expressbank (3.16%) and the largest by Corporate Commercial Bank, central Cooperative Bank and FIBank, all of which are publicly traded banks.

As of 31 March 2011 some 18 banks in the country control assets higher than 1 billion leva (511 mln euro), against 16 a year ago.

The smallest banks in Bulgaria are Regional Investment Bank and Texim Bank, controlling less than 100 million leva (51 mln euro) in assets.