The scoping mission of the 2017 Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) Update was launched on 6 June. The mission consists of representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the Ministry of Finance, the Bulgarian National Bank, the Financial Supervision Commission, the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund, the auditors conducting the bank asset quality review and non-banking sector auditors. The purpose of the scoping mission will be to determine the precise scope of the assessment which is to be made throughout two two-week missions to be held at the end of this year and at the beginning of the next one.

During the kick-off meeting, the Minister of Finance Vladislav Goranov made the mission chiefs, Mr. Michael Moore for the IMF and Mr. Ilias Skamnelos for the World Bank, familiar with the economic and financial situation in Bulgaria. He emphasised that the FSAP would also strengthen the on-going asset quality review (AQR) in the banking sector. Minister Goranov vowed his conviction that after that the trust in the financial system would be fully restored, and that the FSAP and the AQR outcome would be a favourable precondition for future talks about our country's further integration into the common EU processes.

FSAP is an assessment to be undertaken jointly by the IMF and the World Bank and is a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of a country's financial sector and includes two major components, i.e. a financial stability assessment and a financial development assessment. The Program was established in 1999 with a twofold goal, i.e. to gauge the stability and soundness of and the risks for a country's financial sector, and to assess its potential contribution to growth and development, and it also helps the authorities develop appropriate responses. The last FSAP was conducted in 2008.