An Ordinance on Amendment and Supplement to Ordinance No. 16 of 16 July 2009 on Licensing of Payment Institutions, Electronic Money Institutions and Payment System Operators (“Ordinance”) was promulgated in issue 49 of the State Gazette of 27th June 2017 and entered into force on 1st July 2017.
Most notably, the Bulgarian National Bank ("BNB") will no longer maintain in its public registers information on credit institutions licensed in another Member State and providing on the territory of Bulgaria money remittance services included in its license through agents. So far, such credit institutions have been required to submit to the BNB a set of documents specified in the Ordinance for each potential agent on the territory of Bulgaria. Upon review and approval, the agents have been entered into BNB’s register. The recently promulgated amendments to the Ordinance will however lead to discontinuance of this process as credit intuitions licensed in another Member State ("MS") will not be entitled to perform payment services (such as money remittance) included in its license on the territory of Bulgaria through agents any more.
Member State licensed credit institutions which have performed money remittance services through agents as of the date of entry into force of the amendments (1st July 2017) shall bring its activity in compliance with the new requirements not later than 1st April 2018. That said, the above mentioned credit institutions which wish to keep their business and the already established network of agents in Bulgaria have a ten-month transitional period to transfer their agents to a payment institution within the same group.