- Mr. Hristov, can you share in purely human terms how one can experience a banking crisis like the one that we have witnessed?
- People still are not so perfect, so that we can transmit each other live emotions and inner experiences and words cannot do that, but I will try. It's horrible when you see all human feelings and emotions together in a crowd in front of the bank. It's terrible when panic and provocations force the financial and investment decisions of people. The result is always negative and then you always regret. There is a special feeling when deep down inside you are calm and feel secure that nothing terrible can happen, but at the same time you see unthinkable things happen and the sky is falling down on you and this feeling is the real horror. I believe in the bank, because I know that it is true and stable. After all, I am one of the managers and I do not think that something can happen out of the blue.

- What is your explanation - why FIB was an objective to "criminal attack"? Did you find out now who ordered this?
- "Criminal attacks" is a definition given by the competent state authorities, not by me or someone else from the bank. FIB is the most preferred Bulgarian bank among the population and takes the second place for savings by depositors, including among banks with international mothers. We have over 1 million active customers. It is normal when there is panic in the sector because a week earlier another bank was closed, people to be worried about their savings and gather in front of FIB. They have the right to look after their money. I've seen huge queues at the traffic lights in Sofia as you cannot see in the small towns, there are not so many cars there, and somewhere there are no even traffic lights at all. FIB is neither an objective nor a target, but the Bulgarian bank with the hugest number of customers. Since some time it has been implied that Bulgarian banks were not serious and they could not be trusted. I just want to tell you that they have provided living to thousands of employees and their families, thousands of companies started their business from there providing living to millions of people, and this is because we speak the same language with people and the business, and we know what they need. We know why children enjoy martenitsas, knocking with Easter eggs and sing carol songs. I do not know who ordered that, but I see that the National Security Agency, Ministry of Interior and the Prosecution Office work very hard and are doing their best. This makes me believe even more in the state and its bodies.

- Did you expect the panic to go away so quickly? According to your opinion who succumbed to panic more - the citizens or the business?
- The normal working day in the Bank is very busy, people deposit money, pay on cards. Thousands of people are being serviced. There were many people in queues who just wanted to make payments on loans, to pay their expenses at the end of the month, to transfer salaries of their employees. They gave sound mind to all who were misled and gathered there on queues. I would like to personally thank them. Thank you. The people calmed down on the other day and freed from this artificial panic attack. As my colleague Mitko Kostov said, when you go home, watch the football game and drink your beer with fries, you see that everything is normal and is in its place and you start to think clearly and rationally. On Monday, people saw that we were standing at out place, we even designated special counters for payments on loans, opening of deposits and service of companies. We opened another counters for borrowers who had to receive their money on granted loans. The Bank was operating as usual. By noon everything got back to normal situation. If there was an employee who has returned from leave on Monday, he wouldn’t understand that three days ago there was a panic. I am sorry for the nerves of people who were misled and lost their interest on deposits. I do not want to profit from their fears. We respect all our customers and we will show them again that we stand behind them.

- Many analysts comment on the differences in the approach of the state towards the problems in CCB and FIB. What is your explanation? Did FIB really solve the problem only with its own funds? What measures exactly did you take in the bank to overcome the crisis?
- There is no common point between what happened in CCB and the queues in front of FIB. As far as I know our colleagues from CCB have asked themselves Bulgarian National Bank to close the bank and to send quaestors there. FIB has enough money and maintains high availability of funds at any time. Because of this we have managed to solve the problem by ourselves. Yes, it is true that on Friday we discontinued customer service at 3 pm, but you should agree that no bank that can pay on accounts and at cash 800 million BGN. We did it.

- Did you have any problems interacting with the institutions - with Bulgarian National Bank, the government, the banking community? How do you assess their reaction?
- No, we haven’t. We would like to thank all institutions and the whole banking community for their support and timely response. They responded as a state, as colleagues, as one.

- What lessons did you personally learn from what happened?
- First, the quality product does not need insurance and knocking on wood. It is just worth and people know why. Second, our customers really love us. I can see that everywhere in the streets. I will work, and also all my colleagues in the bank, for the biggest prize - the trust of customers. Third, it is true that Bulgarians do not like Bulgarian.

- You have announced bonuses for loyal customers who have not succumbed to panic and do you do something for your employees who served the panicked clients?
- We appreciate all our customers. Apart from announced bonuses our loyal customers will also enjoy their gradual upgrade. For all other customers we will be happy after some time to join them in the category of loyal customers. And they can be sure that the bank is thinking about them. I would like to bow my thanks on behalf of the entire management to the employees for their confidence. They all worked synchronized as one soul in many bodies. We shall show them too that they work in a real large bank.

Author: Tsvetelina Yordanova – Trud newspaper, 05.07.2014