United Bulgarian Bank (UBB), part of KBC Group in Bulgaria, has won a consecutive recognition for its strong market performance and for the development of innovative digital solutions within the Bank of the Year competition. The Bank won the prize in the Market Share category for a second consecutive year and was distinguished with a special diploma in the Bank of the Year for Best Digital Banking Product category for two of its projects – UBB Digital Housing Ecosystem with Kate being a digital orchestrator (Housing Ecosystem) and Blink donations through Kate.

The Market Share distinction is among the main categories in the competition and is a recognition for the scale, sustainable development and the role of UBB as one of the leading financial institutions in Bulgaria. This prize is being awarded to the Bank that has achieved the highest level of business activity relative to its share capital, by attracting considerable deposit volumes of households and businesses and returning a substantial part of this resource back into the economy by means of lending.

The recognition for 2025 builds upon the success of UBB from the previous year when the bank was also distinguished in the Market Share category. Thus, UBB reaffirms its position as a key player in the banking sector and demonstrates consistency in the achievement of strong performance to the benefit of customers, businesses and the economy.

„These distinctions recognize the trust of our customers and the consistent work of the UBB team in developing modern, sustainable and accessible banking. The Market Share prize for a second consecutive year indicates our stable position on the market, while the special diploma for our digital projects affirms that innovations have real value when they facilitate people’s lives and create opportunities for more meaningful solutions – from the care for home to the support for significant public causes“, said Christof De Mil, Chief Executive Officer of UBB, who received the distinctions on the Bank’s behalf.

In the Bank of the Year for Best Digital Banking Product category UBB obtained a special diploma for two solutions, showing the direction of the Bank’s development – beyond traditional banking and towards more integrated, convenient and meaningful digital customer experience.

The first distinguished project – Digital Housing Ecosystem with Kate as a digital orchestrator (Housing Ecosystem) – represents an integrated digital ecosystem for services, linked to a customer’s home. This solution combines financial and non-financial services around the entire housing life cycle – from searching for and purchasing a property to its management, repair, energy efficiency and future development. Through it UBB positions itself not only as a mortgage lending provider, but also as an overall digital partner in the process of choosing, purchasing and managing a home.

An important component of the Ecosystem is the UBB Energy Calculator – an instrument, supporting customers in the practical assessment of the energy efficiency of their present or future home, providing illustrative information about their energy consumption and carbon footprint, and giving recommendations for improvement. This makes complicated technical information an understandable guideline for more sustainable solutions upon home purchase, repair and long-term management.

The second distinguished project – Blink donations through Kate – is a fully digital functionality for making donations through the mobile banking app of UBB, realized through the digital assistant Kate. The service enables customers to quickly and easily choose a donorship cause, account and amount to be donated, without the need to enter bank accounts or telephone numbers. The process has been automated and is accessible through UBB Mobile and created in such a way, to make donating more intuitive, accessible and convenient.

As early as during the first month after introducing the Blink donations service through Kate it was used by over 3 500 customers, and the donated amount to the Bulgarian Christmas cause exceeded BGN 96 000. These results indicate the potential of digital banking solutions in facilitating the daily financial activities of customers and parallel to that in supporting significant public causes.

The Bank of the Year awards are being organized annually by the Bank of the Year Association. The 34-th edition of this competition continues the tradition of distinguishing banks and banking products with leading importance to the development of the financial sector in Bulgaria. The formal ceremony of presenting the awards to the winners was also attended by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Iliyana Yotova.

In addition to the Bank of the Year top prize, rankings recognize winners in key categories such as Market Share, Efficiency and Growth Dynamics, as well as give distinctions for digital transformation and the best existing digital products. In recent years, UBB has been winner of the prestigious Bank of the Year award for 2023 and 2018, as well as awards in the Market Share category for 2024, Growth Dynamics for 2023 and 2018, Efficiency for 2021 and 2022, Digital Transformation for 2024 and Best Existing Digital Product for 2024 and 2023.