UBB and KBC Bank Bulgaria have been officially united after entering in the Commercial Register the re-organization of KBC Bank Bulgaria EAD through its merger into United Bulgarian Bank AD on April 10th, 2023. This has been made possible after obtaining the necessary permissions of the European Central Bank and the Bulgarian National Bank. The legal merger is the next step in the two banks’ integration. In the summer of 2022, the Belgian KBC Group acquired the business of Raiffeisen Bank International in Bulgaria for the record-braking more than 1 bil Euro.

According to BNB’s latest available data for 2022, the new united bank UBB is the largest one in terms of assets. Apart from banking, the activity of the financial group KBC in Bulgaria encompasses also subsidiary companies in insurance, leasing, insurance intermediation, pension insurance, assets management and factoring. KBC Group services 2.4 million clients in Bulgaria.

"Our business here is an example of building a sustainable bank-insurance model, and with this merger we once again confirm our commitment to the Bulgarian market and our support for the Bulgarian economy," said Peter Andronov, Member of the Executive Committee of KBC Group, CEO of International Markets and Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of UBB and DZI. "Our focus will continue to be innovation and digitization with a human touch and of course - excellent customer experience," he added.

“The official merger of UBB and the former KBC Bank Bulgaria is another major step towards the actual unification of our products, operations and IT systems, which are in full preparation and will be implemented on a gradual basis. At this stage, nothing changes for our clients, and they need to take no specific action.”, commented Peter Roebben, Chief Executive Officer of UBB and Country Manager of КВС Group for Bulgaria. The fact that we are a leading financial group in the country, represents also a responsibility to our more than 2 million clients. We will take care to provide them with an even better service, both in our traditional and in our digital channels”, he also added.

As a first step after the legal merger, customers will be able to withdraw money from the ATM networks of UBB and the former KBC Bank Bulgaria under identical conditions and will not pay fees for inter-bank payments.

The process of the technical integration of UBB and the former KBC Bank Bulgaria is underway. Until its completion, the branch network, the corporate website and the digital channels of the former KBC Bank Bulgaria will be marked with a special symbol next to the logo of UBB.

At this stage, clients do not need to take any action and they will continue being serviced just like before. In case of any future changes, they will be informed in due time.

About KBC Group in Bulgaria:
Over the last 15 years of being in Bulgaria, the Belgian-owned financial Group KBC has invested EUR 2.4 billion in the acquisition and development of some of the most significant local companies and projects, among which the consecutive acquisition of DZI, CIBANK, UBB, the Bulgarian operations of NN and of Raiffeisenbank International. Thus, the Group became the biggest integrated financial group in Bulgaria and one if the biggest foreign investors in the Bulgarian economy.