Bulgaria’s upcoming adoption of the euro

• In addition to January 1, 2026, the Council of Ministers has declared December 31, 2025, and January 2, 2026, as official public holidays to mark Bulgaria's transition to the euro.

• On the day of the euro adoption, your BGN accounts with ING will be automatically converted to EUR accounts (at the official fixed exchange rate of 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN), along with the balances. This conversion will be completed overnight, and your IBAN will remain unchanged. There will be no fees or changes to your pricing conditions, and no action is required from you.
• Accounts opening in BGN will cease on December 15, 2025.
• If you have a BGN account with ING outside Bulgaria, you will be contacted by your Local Branch to close your BGN currency accounts and positions before a locally defined cut-off date.

• FX conversion including BGN currency for in-house, incoming and outgoing payments: December 30, 2025, 12:00 EET (11:00 CET).
• Outgoing BGN to BGN payments: December 30, 2025, 13:00 EET (12:00 CET).
• Incoming BGN to BGN payments (including instant payments): December 30, 2025, 16:30 EET (15:30 CET).
• Outgoing non-BGN payments: December 30, 2025, 17:00 EET (16:00 CET).
• Incoming non-BGN payments: December 31, 2025, 20:00 EET (19:00 CET).
• BGN Cash pooling: December 30, 2025, 20:30 EET (19:30 CET).

Please note that December 31, 2025, and January 1, 2026, will be non-processing days for non-BGN outgoing transactions.

• IBP CEE interactive channel will not be available on 1st of January.
• IBP will be available throughout the transition, but transactions initiated via this channel with a value date on the non-business days and the following weekend will get an execution date of January 5, 2026.
• Host to Host Channels will be available throughout the transition.

• FX payments:
  • The final available value date for FX transactions in BGN is December 30, 2025.
  • Due to the upcoming December holidays, to ensure timely processing and meet the latest value date for non-same day BGN conversion transactions, please submit your orders no later than December 23, 2025. Please note that the value date deadline applies to both outgoing and incoming BGN transactions requiring currency conversion.

• BGN transfers (without FX conversions) to and from ING Bulgaria BGN currency accounts will be processed until December 30, 2025.
• Local domestic payment products will be phased out and replaced by SEPA Payment products.
• Domestic Direct Debit (as debtor and as creditor) in BGN will be phased out. Clients who are already utilizing SEPA Direct Debit (as debtor) can continue to use this service without interruption. However Domestic Direct Debit (as creditor) cannot be replaced by SEPA Direct Debit (as creditor) as part of the migration to euro. We will inform you as soon as this product becomes available.
• Tax payments in EUR, including future-dated ones, can only be scheduled after the migration to EUR is completed.
• When initiating payments to a bank outside Bulgaria, please ensure that no Cyrillic characters are used in any field, as this may result in the payment being rejected during the clearing process.
• Following Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro, RINGS and BISERA6 local clearing systems will be discontinued. Consequently, the BIC BNBGBGSD, currently used for BGN settlements, will be fully decommissioned as of 1 January 2026.

• Your account balances will be reported during the migration as follows:
  • For book day December 31, 2025: You will receive an account statement showing your previous closing, opening and closing balance in BGN. This will be available in the morning of either January 1, 2026 or January 2, 2026 depending on channel availability..
  • On January 1, 2026 (Migration Day): Account migration to EUR takes place. During this day, opening and interim balances of January 1, 2026, will not be visible in the interactive channels.
  • For book day January 1, 2026, statement will be available in the morning on January 2, 2026, and include:
    • Previous balance or Opening balance: 0 EUR
    • Initial EUR booking (converted from December 31 BGN closing balance)
    • All other transactions booked on January 1
    • Closing balance in EUR
• Paper Statements (PDF):
  • BGN balances are also displayed in EUR until December 31, 2025,
  • EUR balances are also displayed in BGN from January 1, 2026, to August 8, 2026.

• In accordance with the migration charges currently denominated in BGN will be discontinued and converted to EUR.
• To support a smooth transition and ensure the accurate settlement of BGN-related amounts prior to January 1, 2026, the invoicing process for December will be conducted earlier than usual - on December 16, 2025. Charges incurred between December 17 and December 31, 2025, will be processed in January 2026 and will therefore appear on the January invoice.

• The final BGN for Cash pooling run will be executed on December 30, 2025. Cash pooling in EUR will recommence on January 5, 2026.

For more details, please refer to our page: Q&A: Client Q&A on Bulgaria’s euro adoption.

ING If you have any further questions, feel free to contact the customer support team at ING Bank Sofia Branch (BG.CustomerServices@ingbank.com).