Bank runs provoke appeals for calm

BULGARIA’S leaders have appealed to citizens not to panic and withdraw their savings when banks reopen today, following runs on two major lenders that have raised concerns for the Balkan country’s financial stability.

The runs on Corporate Commercial Bank (Corpbank) and First Investment Bank, Bulgaria’s fourth and third largest lenders respectively, pose the biggest challenge for the European Union’s poorest member state in nearly two decades.

The central bank has said there was a deliberate and systematic attempt to destabilise Bulgaria’s banking system.

It has vowed to measures to protect savings.

Law enforcement officials have launched a criminal investigation.

‘‘There is no cause or reason to give way to panic,’’ President Rosen Plevneliev said yesterday after more than four hours of emergency talks with the leaders of Bulgaria’s main political parties and central bank officials.

‘‘There is no banking crisis, there is a crisis of trust and there is a criminal attack,’’ he told a news conference.

‘‘These need to be overcome and those responsible prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’’

The national security agency said it had arrested five people suspected of spreading false information about the health of banks by sending random emails and mobile phone messages to customers. It later released one of the five. Last week, the central bank took control of Corpbank, whose clients include many state companies, after depositors, rattled by media reports of suspect deals involving the bank, rushed to withdraw their savings.

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