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The 11th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media was opened in Athens today, the main sponso of which is Postbank. On this occasion, Maria S. Topalova talked with CEO and Chairman of the Management Board of the Bank Petya Dimitrova.
    Petya Dimitrova has worked at Postbank for 12 years now, occupying the posts of chief financial officer, procurator, CEO and board member of the bank. Before that, she worked as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Postbank is a subsidiary of the Greek Eurobank, with majority ownership of Canadian and American investment funds.

Mrs. Dimitrova, how have those already six years of political, economic and financial instability in Greece affected Postbank?

I do not think that the crisis in Greece has had such a significant impact on Postbank, since not only it but also other banks in Bulgaria that have Greek capital are fully independent. We are well recapitalised, have high liquidity, our own policy, we are operationally independent. There is some negative PR-effect rather than anything substantial. Now, due to the positive news that is coming from Greece these days, all are very excited and hopeful, because everything is very encouraging at the moment. I.e., we could expect even some growth next year, at least in the second half of 2016. Roughly, these are our attitudes, even here in Greece.

How could we explain the appointment of a high-level banker such as George Provopoulos, a former governor of the Bank of Greece, as chairman of the supervisory board of Postbank?

This is an extremely positive fact. We have a two-stage management system. We have a management board and supervisory board. The supervisory board consists mainly of shareholder and parent company representatives. His appointment is a great pride and honour for us, because he has a splendid biography, wonderful reputation, great experience and we think he will help us a lot to advance and develop. Do not forget that in Bulgaria, Postbank is one of the major systemic banks and it will continue to have a leading position, and a person like him will be extremely useful.

In view of everything that is happening with Greek banks during the crisis in Greece, how would Bulgaria’s possible accession to the euro zone affect the Bulgarian banking system in your opinion?

It would be highly positive, of course. We have announced that this is our priority, and so have the government and other institutions. When this happens, it will be very positive news. We expect this to happen.

Do you mean that Bulgarian banks will have easy access to financing from the European Central Bank?

It is a matter of negotiation. We will see the outcome; this concerns the distant future for the time being.