Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) EAD was nominated BANK OF THE YEAR 2002 by Money Daily. The select commission announced after its final meeting.

DSK Bank was nominated “Bank of the year for market share”, Corporate Trade Bank was “Bank of the year for dynamic”, “Bank of the year for effectiveness” was nominated Bulgarian-American Credit Bank and First Investment Bank was favored by the clients and took “The award of the client”.

The Vice-Chairman of the Management Board of Raiffeisenbank (Bulgaria) AD Mr. Momtchil Andreev received a special statue and a charter from the Presidend of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov at an official ceremony at Hilton Hotel Sofia.

The best banks select commission for a third following year was headed by Ivan Iskrov, Chairman of the Parliament budget commission. The members of the commission were Valeri Dimitrov, member of the Parliament economic commission, Oskat de Bruin Corps, representative of the World Bank in Bulgaria, Vasil Vassilev, Chairman of the Union of the Employers, Maria Georgieva, Director of the International Banking Institute, Kirko Kirkov, Chairman of BIBA, Mihail Stoyanov, Chairman of “Burov” Foundation, Maxim Behar, Chairman of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, the financial experts Gati al Jeburi and Andrei Pramov, and the banking experts Gacho Kolev and Ivan Panchev.

For the purposes of the ranking the select commission took into consideration the official information of the Bulgarian National Bank concerning the results of the banks for 2002. The banks were ranked under 18 criteria divided in 3 general groups – market share, efficiency and dynamic. “The award of the client” was given with the votes of companies-members of BIBA, Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, and Union of the Employers and the readers of Money Daily.

The award “Bank of the year” aims to outline and stimulate the banks’ role as financial mediators in the highly competitive economic environment, the publisher of Money Daily Mr. Valentin Panaiotov said.

The history of the price follows the history of the banking sector in Bulgaria and started in 1993. The crisis in the banking system made the ranking after 1995 impossible. The newspaper restores the award in 2001.