The adoption of the euro as the official legal tender in Bulgaria is one of the most significant events in this country’s modern history. The banking sector had a special role in ensuring the seamless and effective introduction of the new currency, as well as the exchange of Bulgarian banknotes and coins. The preparation has taken a period of nearly two years, with the most intense work being done from the middle of 2025, when the European institutions officially adopted the decision for Bulgaria’s accession to the Eurozone, until 1st January 2026, when shortly after midnight the first banknotes of the new official currency of Bulgaria were withdrawn at ATMs.
„We will take care of the change“ is the message of the biggest bank in Bulgaria in terms of assets towards its hundreds of thousands customers and the society as a whole. It fully reflects the understanding of the UBB team that regardless of the large scale and technical complexity of the process, for the end users - natural persons and businesses - it should be rendered into clear, understandable and foreseeable steps, through which they should go through with ease and comfort.

While being led by this ambition, as early as in the summer of 2025 UBB cancelled the fees, changed on individuals for depositing Bulgarian leva into accounts and deposits and thousands of customers were supported in depositing their Bulgarian leva, so that these could be converted into euro on 01.01.2026, without queuing. Even before 01:00 A.M. on 1 January 2026 UBB ATMs had successfully switched the software and started giving out euro banknotes. Simultaneously with ATMs, all cards and POS terminals of the Bank also started operating, thus ensuring the needed comfort to people and businesses on the New Year’s Eve. Within the first two weeks withdrawals at UBB ATMs numbered 997 875 of value EUR 246 556 200. The payments, made through the Bank’s POS terminals were 2 481 232 of value EUR 87 353 229.
UBB Mobile was the first banking app to open for customers after the conversion to euro on 01.01.2026 at 5:30 A.M. with all available functionalities and ever since then it operates without interruptions. Only by 23 January 2026 registered customer logins in UBB Mobile were 14 196 702, as within that period transactions made through the app numbered 1 090 505. The Bank’s customers purchased 6640 vignettes of value EUR 270 777. The made utility bill payments numbered 417 789, amounting to EUR 17 445 161, there were 47 870 transfers to mobile number worth EUR 8 417 242. In the initiated campaign for payment of local taxes and fees through UBB Mobile 1 141 individuals paid their taxes of total value EUR 61 662.

Until 16.01.2026 there were 632 661 fund transfers made and 157 525 salaries paid through the business app UBB Online. Payment of the first pensions in euro started as of 07.01.2026, and UBB took care of 287 749 Bulgarian pensioners, by providing their pensions in euro, totalling to EUR 156 872 504.
UBB branches also opened on 05.01.2026 upon an increased interest on the part of customers and individuals. 18 342 individuals were greeted and serviced on the first business day, and the exchanged sums totalled to EUR 51 868 692. Until 23.01.2026 our branches had rendered currency exchange services to EUR 223 817 individuals, and the value of the total exchanged amount was EUR 557 431 376. Exchanged coins only were 22 883 000 pieces worth EUR 11 864 000.

UBB was one of the few banks that continued using the deposit function of ATMs for accepting Bulgarian leva banknotes in January, as over that period the made installments numbered 198 007, totalling to BGN 257 517 565. The number of card transactions was 3 479 107 of value EUR 333 909 429.

The scale of everything that happened in line with the adoption of the euro currency and the servicing of customers and individuals within this process in the month of January can be illustrated with several interesting comparisons:

The 14.2 million logins in UBB Mobile exceed by 4.5 times the monthly visits to the Louvre, Versailles, the Colosseum, La Sagrada Familia and the entire Sofia city taken together.

The 223 817 people, serviced in our branches, exceed by nearly 53 000 individuals the number of goers to the big concerts of the global stars Ed Sheeran, Robbie Williams, Guns N’ Roses, Enrique Iglesias and Andrea Bocelli, held over the last two years with the support of UBB in the Vasil Levski National Stadium in Sofia city.
The coins, exchanged in the Bank’s branches over the first three weeks of January were of total weight 106 598.6 kilograms, equaling the weight of 22 elephants.

If we arrange all banknotes of over 0.55 billion euro, exchanged in the branches of UBB, one next to the other it will make a line of nearly 13 000 kilometers, which can cover the distance from Sofia to Honolulu in Hawaii.

We have taken care of and we will continue doing so over the next months, to ensure the comfort and confidence of customers and individuals in using the new currency. The Bank’s branches remain available for those customers, who have still not exchanged their Bulgarian leva banknotes and coins. This exchange will be utterly free of charge until 30 June 2026.