UniCredit Bulbank is the largest bank in Bulgaria. Before 1994, the bank was known as Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank or BFTB. UniCredit Bulbank was founded in 2007 by the merger of Bulbank, Biochim and Hebros Bank, all of which are owned by the UniCredit Group.

History

The prototype of Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank is Bulgarian Foreign Trade Bank. Founded in 1964, it is a fully state-owned bank with paid-in capital of 40 million Bulgarian Lev and has statutory specialization qualifications in foreign trade payments and finance. During the next two decades, the Bank opened representative offices in London, Frankfurt and Vienna.

BFTB was involved in the establishment of two joint stock companies in 1987 and 1998 - Bayerisch-Bulgarische Handelsbank GmbH (HypoVereinsbank Bulgaria after 1998) with Bayerische Vereinsbank (HVB) and Bulgarsovinvest (Corporate Commercial Bank after 1994) with Vnesheconombank.

In 1991, following the fall of the communist regime, the Bank Consolidation Company (BCC) was established as a holding company to consolidate state ownership of the banking sector and facilitate the privatization of the bank. BCC holds 98% of the share capital of Bulbank. Banco Bulgaria was the first bank in Bulgaria to adopt the SWIFT code, thereby significantly enhancing its operational performance and improving the reliability of transactions.

The General Meeting of Shareholders in 1992 changed the status of the bank to that of a universal commercial bank, thus expanding the branch network (Plovdiv, Kaljali, Burgas, Old Zagora, etc.), focusing on Client Server in the following years.

In 1994, the General Meeting of Shareholders adopted a resolution to change the name of the bank to Bulbank.

In 1998, Bulbank launched its international card payment system jointly with Visa International and Europay International.

As a result of the privatization procedure from 1998 to 2000, UniCredito Italiano owned 93% of the capital and Allianz 5%. Bulbank sold its stake in Corporate Commercial Bank (99.9%), as well as its stake in United Bulgarian Bank (35%) and HypoVereinsbank Bulgaria (49%).

In 2001, Bulbank's major shareholder, UniCredito, sold a small stake of 2.5% and 5.3% of the equity, respectively, to SIMEST S.p.A., Rome and IFC.

Bulbank has been merging with HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank since 2006, following the merger of UniCredit Group with HVB Group in 2005.

On April 27, 2007, Bulbank, HVB Bank Biochim and Hebros Bank announced a legal merger. The merged institution is known as UniCredit Bulbank.

Since 2001, the CEO of UniCredit Bulbank is Levon Hampartzoumian.

In May 2019, Teodora Petkova became the CEO and Chairperson of the Management Board of UniCredit Bulbank.