The Bulgarians are the poorest Europeans, but top the EU rankings in terms of the number of banking centers. There are 62 bank offices per 100,000 people here. To compare, in Norway those are barely 10, while in Germany – 14. Perhaps one can see such a profusion of luxurious branch offices in Italy only, as those spread here along both the most prestigious Sofia streets and the humblest suburbs as well. This banking presence, disproportionate to the poor financial abilities of the Bulgarians can be hardly explained with some rational economic reasons – it is more like a demonstration of prestige and welfare, which often goes into the area of kitsch. Furthermore, the global trend is for the large-scale use of online banking via the Internet and cash terminals.
No matter how numerous the banking centers are, one must admit that most of those cannot complain of any lack of clients. Despite being poor, the Bulgarians have saved some EUR 30 billion. The personal presence of banks’ clients on the other hand says that modern forms of banking haven’t invaded the everyday life of most people, although over 40 percent of them claim that they use the Internet on a regular basis with all its options. At the same time barely 2 percent of the Bulgarians use online banking. We must admit that the future belongs to it and all banks offer such services, sometimes even for free. There is another positive premise for the inevitably forthcoming boom of online banking services – the fact that each adult citizen of this country has at least one or two bank cards and unlike dying traditional trade, its online version is on the rise.
It looks like we witness the initial signs of banking services’ online era’s entering, as most banks start as of this year the reduction of their physical presence in the streets and malls, closing some of their branches. Obviously they are also aware of global experts’ opinion, saying that in the next 20 years banking centers will practically disappear, completely replaced by online banking.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
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