Societe Generale Expressbank is the winner in this year’s contest for Bulgaria’s “Bank of the Year“, the Bank of the Year Association has announced.

Bulgaria’s 14th annual Bank of the Year awards – first started in 1992 – were revealed at a news conference in Sofia on Wednesday in seven different categories, including the big “Bank of the Year” prize snatched by Societe Generale Expressbank.

UniCredit Bulbank, which landed the big prize last year, is now the winner in the “Client’s Bank” 2010 category, while Citibank N.A. – Sofia branch has triumphed with the award for Best Bank Branch in Bulgaria 2010.

The Corporate Commercial Bank is the winner of the “Development Dynamics Award” 2010. DSK Bank has been awarded the prize for “Efficiency”, and First Investment Bank has been granted the price for best “Market Share 2010″ performance.

The award in the brand-new category of the Bulgarian Bank of the Year Association – “Secret Client’s Prize 2010″ has been won by Raiffeisenbank.

The Bank of the Year Association’s founders feature a number of prominent Bulgarian professionals such as financier Andrey Pramov, Deloitte Bulgaria partner Silvia Peneva, Moore Stephens Bulgaria partner Stefan Nenov, the creator of the Bank of the Year prizes and long-time publisher of the economic daily “Pari” Valentin Panayotov, the top Bulgarian PR expert Maxim Behar, the economic secretary of the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov, Ertan Kara.

The winners in the individual Bank of the Year categories are determined through the examination of a complex set of criteria and hard data provided by the Bulgarian National Bank by a number of experts including financier Andrey Pramov, the President of the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria Ognyan Donev, the Chair of the Bulgarian Audit Office Prof. Valeri Dimitrov, the President of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum Maria Shishkova, the Director of the International Banking Institute Maria Georgieva, the CEO of the Burov Foundation Vladimir Tashkov, the Chair of Association of Industrial Capital Vasil Velev as well as HP executive Sasha Bezuhanova, and the above-mentioned Valentin Panayotov, Maxim Behar, Ertan Kara, Silvia Peneva.

The award in the “Client’s Bank” 2010 category is the exception as it has been determined through an online vote. A total of more than 45 000 votes were cast in this year’s campaign, up from some 36 000 last year, with the winner UniCredit Bulbank receiving close to 12 000 votes.

Bulgaria’s 14th Bank of the Year awards are sponsored by Konica Minolta, the Doverie Pension Security Fund, Western Union, Kamor Auto, and DHL Express.

The official ceremony for the Bulgarian Bank of the Year 2010 awards is taking Wednesday night at the Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan, with the participation of Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

The holder of the prize for 2009 was UniCredit Bulbank, and for 2008 - United Bulgarian Bank. Banks awarded in previous years were as follows: 1991 – Bank for Agricultural Credit; 1992 – Bank for Agricultural Credit; 1993 – Bulgarian Post Bank; 2000 – Bulbank; 2002 – Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria; 2003 – Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria; 2004 – DSK Bank; 2005 – United Bulgarian Bank and DSK Bank; 2006 – PostBank; 2007 – Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria.

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Bulgaria registered a negative foreign direct investment inflow of EUR 62.5 M in the first four months of 2011, according to latest data of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB).

The central bank points out that the outflow of FDI from Bulgaria is “due to net payments on intercompany credits in accordance with the loan repayment schedules of enterprises, according to preliminary data.

Thus, the foreign direct investment in Bulgaria in January-April 2011 decreased by EUR 441 M year-on-year – EUR 62.5 M (0.2% of GDP) in the first four months of 2011 compared to EUR 378.9 M (1.1% of GDP) attracted in January-April 2010.

Bulgaria’s FDI continues to collapse after the country got only EUR 1.458 B in foreign investments in 2010, and EUR 3 B in 2009, down from the peaks in 2007 (EUR 9 B), and 2008 (EUR 6 B).

The BNB data released Wednesday indicated that Bulgaria’s attracted Equity Capital (acquisition/disposal of shares and equities in cash and contributions in kind by non-residents in/from the capital and reserves of Bulgarian enterprises and receipts/payments from/for real estate deals in the country) for January – April 2011 amounted to EUR 234.7 M. It decreased by EUR 56.2 M compared to that attracted in the same period of 2010 (EUR 290.9 M).

The receipts from real estate investments of non-residents amounted to EUR 52.1 M against EUR 49.9 M in January-April 2010.

The other capital, net (the change in the net liabilities of the direct investment enterprise to the direct investor on financial loans, suppliers’ credits and debt securities) was negative, amounting to EUR 361.4 M in January-April 2011, compared to a positive other capital, net of EUR 8.6 M in January-April 2010.

Based on preliminary data on profit/loss, the Reinvested Earnings (the share of non-residents in the undistributed earnings/ loss of the enterprise) in January-April 2011 were estimated at EUR 64.2 M, against EUR 79.4 M in the same period of 2010.

By country, the largest net foreign direct investments in Bulgaria for the period January-April 2011 were those of Austria (EUR 116 M), Cyprus (EUR 46 M) and Spain (EUR 35.7 M).

The net payments to Germany, the UK and Japan amounted to EUR 108.6 M, EUR 108.3 M and EUR 50.3 M. The negative flows were mainly due to net payments on intercompany credits in accordance with the loan repayment schedules of enterprises, the BNB says.

According to preliminary data in January-April 2011, Bulgarian direct investment abroad amounted to EUR 24.5 M compared to EUR 38.8 M in January-April 2010.