/ world today news/ Ivan Iskrov is and will be the governor of the BNB. This is clear from the way he speaks – he has no intention of resigning, he justifies himself and is not at all worried that today he says one thing, tomorrow – another.
Anyone can check what he said on June 20, what press release the BNB press center released three days earlier, what he said a few days later. Let’s remember: KTB is not a bankrupt bank. People should be calm. Enough of creating fears. Then he said that there is a preliminary proceeding against the deputy governor in charge of banking supervision, but that does not mean at all that he broke the law. Things are at a preliminary stage. Take your time, nothing major has happened. Then there were inadequate responses to the First Investment Bank crisis. But let’s not forget that he was one of the authors in 2008 of the secret agreement to pour nearly a billion into PIB, which to this day is not known under what conditions it was given.
Publications regarding the poor work of banking supervision have repeatedly appeared in some media. I personally asked in 2004-2005 about the unique checks that banking supervision was doing on the complaints of users of financial and banking services. Then this same manager claimed that there is nothing to touch the banking system because it is one of the best regulated. Against the background of all these facts, and many publications with investigations, as we can see, Iskrov is still the manager and is not at all worried about saying one thing today and another tomorrow. Obviously, the trust in him in the society has a negative sign. But more important in this case is the trust of those who chose him. Until the people and the National Assembly decide, Iskrov will continue to implement their provisions.
He has been hiding for a long time. That he tried to do it for some of the media today is not unusual. For example, a year ago, when the director of a bank branch in Burgas was shot dead and when details of the long-hidden banking scandals emerged, none of the members of the BNB Board of Directors, including the governor, thought it necessary to say two words on the matter. As if it is in the order of things / as it became known from the words of the man who shot the bank employee / that the banks extort. Even then it was clear what the BNB’s position was – it hid in a corner and did not want to come out to the public at all. Subsequently, we see the amount of unsecured loans that turn bad. But the Central Bank did not comment on them either.
We also see what the heads of these smart people gave birth to. In two days, they came up with the corresponding changes in the Penal Code – to punish up to 5 or up to 10 years for anyone who points out the weaknesses in the management of the banking system. And at the same time, let’s not forget that this same Iskrov – Tsonev tandem is the author of the change in the Criminal Code, which does not provide for punishment for bankers who gave out unsecured loans. It is very interesting – not to seek responsibility from those who distributed the money to depositors, but to seek criminal responsibility from those who, for example, give statements or write articles on the matter.
In this line of thought, there is nothing surprising in the behavior of the Central Bank, because at this press conference on June 20, when several uncomfortable questions were asked to the management of the BNB, then the entire management was actually silent, only the governor spoke, who is clearly not prepared to speak in public speech and makes unmeasured statements that in no way contribute to calming the situation. Maybe he has too many things piled on his head that he knows about, but the public gets the information hourly by the spoonful and has the appropriate varnish. The information about the banking sector is not from today and he has known it for a long time. And he wonders what to do – they pull the curtain to hide the information and suddenly things happen for people like a hammer blow. Or to do the job for which they were elected and for there to be preventive activity on the part of the BNB, so that similar things are not allowed. Now it’s like after the rain that a hood is offered by the same team that has allowed such weaknesses, changes in the legislation. If only they had offered them earlier.
There are many disturbing facts. Let’s remember that there was entry of the prosecutor’s office into companies that are in the same building of the KTB. Helpful TVs were immediately summoned. BNB is usually silent and doesn’t seem to notice. Then there was some big withdrawal, now it turns out that there was a withdrawal of 1 billion, at least those are the explanations. For a long time, Yordan Tsonev also claimed that state-owned companies had not withdrawn money from KTB. Then Prime Minister Oresharski said that some state-owned companies had succumbed to the panic. At all, one does not know who to trust when. Another very strange thing was that the Ministry of the Interior and the State Security Service became active. Prime Minister Oresharski is a financier, Deputy Prime Minister Bobeva worked for many years at the BNB, she worked at the Black Sea Bank for Trade and Economic Cooperation. The two of them also remained stubbornly silent, while at the same time letting the Minister of the Interior make statements on behalf of the government. And this person entered the bank only as a customer.
All these facts and the totally inadequate reaction of the BNB are strange enough. They should be analyzed by an independent, disinterested committee. Because the strangest thing is that everyone who talks about it is somehow dependent in their relationship to KTB and to the incident of the last month. To each one of them, who gives an opinion on the matter, we must be critical – to know what his addictions and interests are, so that we can explain to ourselves what part of the words he utters we should pay attention to. Thus, we can explain why it does not affect certain issues, but emphasizes others. Now they are talking about a lack of 3.5 billion and about 200 million exported in sacks. For some people, these 200 million are very important, and others claim that 3.5 billion are important. What are these 3.5 billion – are they there or not, and when were they exported and when were they given as loans, chronologically speaking – no one speaks. Some numbers are being thrown around and ridiculous theories are being put forward – about money carried out in sacks. I would probably need a truck to move so many millions in sacks. How it happened is not clear. These are laughable.
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Georgi Atanasov, Bulgarian Energy Forum.
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