Fears that foreign banks might face pressure to close their Bulgarian operations because of problems in domestic markets have proved unfounded, but uncertainty persists as the country’s recession deepens.

Austrian, Italian, Greek, French and Hungarian banks that together have a market share of more than 80 per cent, pulled out €1.5bn of funds earlier this year, after the central bank decided to reduce the mandatory reserve requirement from 12 per cent to 10 per cent of deposits.