Bulgarian bank stripped of licence, headed for insolvency

Bulgaria's fourth-biggest bank has been stripped of its licence and insolvency proceedings will begin, the central bank said Thursday, five months after accounts were frozen following a run.
"The BNB (central bank) has revoked the licence of Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB)," the central bank said in a statement.
"In accordance with banking insolvency law, a request has been addressed to the relevant court to open insolvency proceedings."
Since June, thousands of depositors, businesses and local authorities have been unable to access their accounts at CCB.
This followed press reports about irregularities that prompted a run on the bank, sparked fears at the time of a repeat of 1996-7 when 14 Bulgarian banks went bankrupt.
The largest shareholder in CCB, Tsvetan Vasilev, is wanted in Bulgaria for allegedly pressuring executives to transfer some 100 million euros ($125 million) from the bank to his personal account in June.
He left Bulgaria immediately after the run and was issuing statements from Austria. He was untraceable for a while before resurfacing in Serbia where he surrendered to police in September.