site.btaDeputy PM Zaharieva Says Firm Should Be Hired to Collect Loans Due to Troubled Corpbank

116 FINANCES - DEPUTY PM - CORPBANK - COMMENT amplified

Deputy PM Zaharieva Says
Firm Should Be Hired
to Collect Loans Due to Troubled Corpbank


Sofia, October 28 (BTA) - A firm should be hired to collect the
loans extended by the Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank). "If
good debt-collecting firms are hired, then a large portion of
the 4,222 million leva lent in the form of unsecured loans
should be recovered," Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina
Zaharieva, who is responsible for economic policy, told
journalists here on Tuesday.

Corpbank suspended all operations on June 20 after a run by
depositors left it illiquid, and on the same day the Bulgarian
National Bank (BNB) placed it under special supervision for a
maximum of six months to allow a thorough audit and possible
restructuring.

"There is no way a regular or a caretaker cabinet could
commission such a firm. This should be done by the BNB or
Corpbank's trustee in bankruptcy, in case it comes to a
bankruptcy procedure. The same step should also be taken in case
the bank is rehabilitated because no one is obliged to repay
other people's debts," Zaharieva commented.

"The 2,000 million leva calculated in the draft update of the
State budget related to Corpbank are intended to repay all
deposits guaranteed by law by the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance
Fund," she noted.

* * *

Twelve employees of the BNB Banking Supervision Department
appeared for questioning at the Sofia Investigation Service on
Tuesday. Off the record, it transpired that the questioning is
part of the Corpbank case investigation.

All those summoned declined comment to the media.