Interview - Unicredit Bulbank to Remain Market Leader Despite Crisis, CEO Says

SOFIA (Bulgaria), September 1 (SeeNews) - UniCredit Bulbank, a unit of Italian banking group UniCredit and Bulgaria's largest lender by assets, is confident it will keep its leadership of the domestic market this year despite the economic downturn, the bank's CEO Levon Hampartzoumian told SeeNews in an interview. The bank had total assets of 11.4 billion levs ($8.3 billion/5.8 billion euro) at the end of June. Bulgaria's banking system, which comprises 24 domestically-owned lenders and branches of six foriegn banks, had total assets of 69.5 billion levs at the end of that month.