UniCredit Bulbank is going to be dubbed Bank of the Year 2009, gettning the most prestigious award for banking and finance in Bulgaria.

The trophy (shaped as a safe key) will be presented at an official ceremony 19.00 EET Monday evening by Bulgaria's President Georgi Parvanov at Sofia's Sheraton Hotel Balkan.

“Bank of the Year” has been offered 13 times, having it inception in 1992. Starting this year the award is organized by the Bank of the Year Association, bringing together leading Bulgarian bankers, economists and businessmen.

Apart from the main prize, the prestigious contest offers awards in specific fields, which are also going to be presented at the ceremony Monday evening.

Alpha Bank is awarded in the Best Foreign Bank Branch category, Post Bank gets the Client's Bank award, ProCredit Unionbank gets the distinction for Efficiency, Société Generale Expressbank is best at Development Dynamics, and UniCredit Bulbank gets one more award, this time in the Market Share category.

Among the founding members of the Bulgarian Bank of the Year Association are Andrey Pramov, financial expert, and long time member of the Governing Board of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange; Silvia Peneva, partner at Deloitte Bulgaria; Stefan Nenov, partner at Moore Stephens Bulgaria – Audit Ltd; Ertan Kara, economic advisor of the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov; Nayden Nedyalkov, CEO of Allied Assets consultancy; Valentin Panayotov (chair), creator of the Bank of the Year awards, owner of the trade mark, and publisher of the financial newspaper Pari Daily; Maxim Behar, PR specialist and CEO of the largest Bulgarian public relations company, M3 Communications Group, Inc.

All of those persons are part of the jury for 2009's Bank of the Year Award, which also includes other members of Bulgaria's business and financial élite.

The holder of the prize for 2008 was United Bulgarian Bank. Banks awarded in previous years are 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.