site.btaBulgarian Central Bank Clears Acquisition of Tokuda Bank by Bulgarian-American Credit Bank

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) announced Wednesday that it had approved the acquisition of Tokuda Bank EAD by the Bulgarian-American Credit Bank AD (BACB).

The BNB Governing Council adopted a national decision today which, in execution of an instruction from the European Central Bank (ECB), grants BACB prior approval to directly acquire a qualified shareholding exceeding 50% of the capital and voting rights in Tokuda Bank EAD, the statement said.

The central bank added that since the establishment of the close-cooperation framework between the ECB and the BNB, and Bulgaria’s entry into the Single Supervisory Mechanism on October 1, 2020, the ECB has held exclusive competence to assess notifications for the acquisition of qualified shareholdings in lending institutions, acting in coordination with the BNB.

BACB announced in April last year that it had reached an agreement with the Japanese company Tokushukai Inc. to acquire 99.94% of the shares of Tokuda Bank AD. The share acquisition agreement was conditional on obtaining all necessary regulatory approvals/authorizations from the competent authorities, BACB said at the time.

In July 2024, the Commission on Protection of Competition approved BACB’s acquisition of direct control over Tokuda Bank AD.

After the central bank's announcement, BACB Supervisory Board Chair Tsvetelina Borislavova commented for BTA that a Bulgarian bank is acquiring a foreign bank for the first time, which is good news for the economy as a whole. She does not expect the acquisition of Tokuda Bank to significantly change BACB’s position within the Bulgarian banking system, but sees it as a step toward market consolidation.

She explained that the acquisition will be finalized at the beginning of next year, after which a procedure to merge the acquired bank into BACB will begin.

Although the deal was signed in April last year, the finalization is only now taking place because the ECB needed a long time to issue its final decision, Borislavova explained.

She emphasized that BACB is proud to have successfully gone through all the complex procedures and to have met the ECB’s requirements for approving the acquisition.

"We went through all of this, we were approved, and we are acquiring another bank that is not Bulgarian-owned. We believe this is a good step for the Bulgarian economy as a whole, because Bulgaria needs truly strong and transparent Bulgarian banks operating in the country, and this is yet another confirmation that we are one of them," said Borislavova.