Bulgaria: Further details in connection with the introduction of the EUR - Update

Note: This announcement, originally published on 19 November 2025, and updated on 20 November 2025 and 24 November 2025, has been further updated to inform clients about the last settlement day in 2025 announced by the Bulgarian National Bank. Changes have been highlighted.

Further to Announcements A25046 and A25071, Clearstream¹ provides clients with further details about the cutover dates and market rules as follows:

Trading

As announced by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE), the following market rules apply for the cutover:

• The last trading day before the introduction of the EUR will be 22 December 2025.
• The trading session on the last day for trading in BGN will end normally with a closing auction at 17:00 EET. The duration of the Book phase will be changed and instead of ending at 17:30 EET, it will end at 18:00 EET.
• Due to a change in the trading currency, all orders in the trading system in BGN will be deleted on the last trading day in BGN after the final closing of the trading day at 18:00 EET.
• No trading will take place on 23, 29, 30 and 31 December 2025. The first day of trading in EUR will be 5 January 2026, which is the first working day after the introduction of the EUR. From this date, trading and settlement of all financial instruments admitted to trading on the markets organised by the Bulgarian Stock Exchange (BSE) will be carried out in EUR.

Domestic securities settlement - Cutover procedure

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), the depository for Government securities, announced that the last settlement day before the introduction of the EUR will be 22 December 2025. BNB’s ESROT system will operate during its regular business hours. 

As announced by the Central Depository AD, the last settlement day before the introduction of the EUR will be 30 December 2025.

To facilitate a smooth transitioning, and upon agreement with our custodian Bank, Eurobank Bulgaria AD, Clearstream will stop processing any new settlement instruction for our Bulgarian link on 30 December at 09:00 CET. Therefore, clients who wish to settle securities denominated in either EUR or BGN on this date should ensure that their instructions are received STP by Clearstream before 09:00 CET on 30 December 2025. Any instructions received after 09:00 CET on this date will be rejected by Clearstream and will have to be reinputted by clients from the first working day after the introduction of the EUR.

For any domestic trades in BGN that have been executed up to and including 22 December 2025, settlement will be possible until 12:00 CET on 30 December 2025, provided clients send their instructions as early as possible (before 09:00 CET on 30 December 2025) and ensure that these are complete, accurate and eligible for straight-through-processing (STP) in Clearstream and in the local market. Clients should also ensure that any necessary provision is available for the instructions and that their counterparty’s instructions are in place.

Internal Settlement of Bulgarian securities denominated in BGN will be possible until 30 December 2025 at 12:00 CET.

All pending instructions, including matched instructions that did not settle in Clearstream by 12:00 CET on 30 December 2025 will be automatically cancelled by Clearstream. Clients will be informed of any cancelled instructions via MT548. Clients and their respective counterparties will have to reinstruct the trades in EUR currency on the first business day following the introduction of the EUR.

The settlement of transactions will resume in EUR on the first business day following the introduction of the EUR. and all settlement trades involving Bulgarian securities will be settled by CD AD via T2S.

Corporate action submissions

Central Depository AD will cease to accept corporate actions registration requests, including any related payments from 19 December 2025.

Bulgarian securities will be redenominated at the start of 2026 to reflect EUR valuations. The securities’ ISIN will remain the same. ISIN currency, nominal value and price will be redenominated from BGN to EUR as of the start of 2026.

Any dividends and interest will be paid in EUR from 1 January 2026 onwards.

New settlement deadlines in EUR for Bulgarian securities

Settlement time in Central European Time (CET) effective 1 January 2026 for EUR denominated securities:

a. Matched transactions cannot be unilaterally cancelled by clients. At the end of each settlement date all pending transactions automatically expire in the BNB system. Clients are required to reinstruct with a new SD.
b. For deadlines applicable to settlement of new issues of Bulgarian government securities, please refer to “New issues settlement” under Settlement services - Bulgaria.
c. The deadlines do not apply to OTC transactions. The CBL deadline for free of payment OTC instructions is 14:55 SD and for against payment OTC instructions is 14:55 SD-2 (that is, TD). See also "Notes on OTC transactions" below.
d. Cancellations of against payment instructions should be sent by 16:30 CET on SD-1. Any cancellation request received by CBL will be processed on "best efforts" basis. Cancellation of matched transactions requires bilateral cancellation.

The deadlines shown above are valid provided that the client's instructions are complete, accurate and eligible for straight-through processing (STP) in CBL and in the local market. Clients must also ensure that any necessary provision is available. If any of these criteria are not met, CBL cannot guarantee timely settlement.

Important Note: As part of CBL’s internal compliance procedures, all incoming client instructions will be automatically scanned before entering transaction processing. Instructions that are internally flagged as requiring further manual investigation are set to status pending, with such status immediately reported to the client via their chosen media channel(s), until either being manually released for processing or rejected. In order to ensure that instructions being investigated do not miss the applicable deadlines, clients are advised to input instructions at least 15 minutes before the associated deadline.

Cash transactions and cash balances

The last day for BGN cash transactions is 30 December 2025, the cash deadline remains unchanged at 12:00 CET. Clients are encouraged to close any BGN surplus balance left in their Clearstream account before 30 December 2025. Clients could opt to instruct a funds transfer to move funds from their BGN account at Clearstream to their own cash correspondent bank, or to arrange for a foreign exchange instruction to convert their balance from BGN to any other Clearstream eligible currency. The last possible date to arrange for a foreign exchange trade via Clearstream will be 23 December 2025 at 11:30 CET, for Value Date 30 December 2025.

At the close of business 30 December 2025, all pending BGN cash transactions will be rejected and any remaining BGN cash balances will be converted into EUR using the official exchange rate (1 euro = 1.95583 leva).

From 1 January 2026, BGN will no longer be accepted as an eligible settlement currency within Clearstream. Consequently, and with the adoption of the EUR, Clearstream will no longer have a BGN cash correspondent bank in Bulgaria.

Holiday calendar

Please observe that 24, 25 and 26 December 2025 are public holidays in Bulgaria.

Please observe any upcoming announcements in connection with year-end processing and revised instruction deadlines for all markets, including Bulgaria.

Note: 31 December 2025 and 2 January 2026 have been officially declared as public holidays in Bulgaria. 

Further Information

Any further details, if relevant, regarding cutover procedures and the conversion and redenomination process in the Bulgarian market will be provided in a timely manner.

For further information, clients may contact Clearstream Client Services or their Relationship Officer.

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1. Clearstream refers collectively to Clearstream Banking S.A., registered office at 42, avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, and registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under number B-9248, and Clearstream Europe AG (for Clearstream Europe AG clients using 6-series accounts), registered office at 61, Mergenthalerallee, 65760 Eschborn, Germany and registered in Register B of the Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main, Germany under number HRB 7500. 
Clearstream Banking S.A. is registered as an Australian CS (Overseas) Facility, under subsection 824B(2) of the Corporations Act 2001, with registration number ARBN 675 244 783.