The process of transferring current accounts of individuals is possible on the basis of an Agreement , to which CIBANK is a party, between the banks - members of the Association of Bulgarian Banks for transfers of current accounts of individuals. 

You can transfer your regular direct debits (such as payments for utility services, rent, insurance, etc.), payment orders for regular outgoing credit transfers (such as taxes, maintenance, fees, etc.) and regular incoming transfers (such as salaries, payments from social security, from rent, etc.) made from/into your current account at another bank into your existing current account at CIBANK or if you don’t have an account with us, you can open one for the purpose. 

You can use CIBANK, which for the purposes of transferring shall be called New Bank, as the Main Point of Contact in the transferring process. This means that CIBANK will act as your intermediary in working out your relations with your Old Bank – the one in which you have an account from which you wish to transfer your service to CIBANK with regard to the above-mentioned payments.

Should you not choose us as your Main Point of Contact, you would have to personally work out your relations with the Old Bank. The actions you need to undertake concerning both options – to choose CIBANK as a Main Point of Contact or not to do so, are described below.

You should keep in mind that it is not possible to carry out the transfer if your current account at the Old Bank is still being used for servicing a loan, if you have an agreed overdraft on it, or if it is linked to the use of bank cards under which bank products are being used, or if it is a current account linked to investment-related services and also if you have registered pledge, distraint or blocked amounts on it.
 

Note: For your protection and in your interest, in case you have chosen to communicate only with the New Bank (it will be the Main Point of Contact) the following procedure will take place: if CIBANK as your Old Bank is about to receive from another bank -  acting as your New Bank – a Request to  Transfer your CIBANK accounts into a New Bank, you will need to have certified your signature on the three copies of the Request to Transfer an Account  at a notary public chosen by you. To certify your signature you should only pay a single notary fee and not three separate ones and we recommend that you explicitly check and insist on compliance with this principle before carrying out the certification. Thus, the New Bank will have and will send to the Old Bank one of these notary-certified copies (the second and the third copies are for you and the New Bank) and CIBANK as your Old Bank, will have a legal proof of your actual wish to transfer your accounts.

The procedure for carrying out the transfer of a current account is as follows:

If you would like your payments, such as regular direct debits, payment orders for regular outgoing credit transfers and regular incoming credit transfers, to be serviced by a CIBANK account, please ask for information as to which of your payments can be serviced by CIBANK.

Given this information, after you’ve reached a decision that you wish to transfer your payments from the account at the Old Bank, you have to open a new current account at CIBANK. If you already have an account with us, you can use it for the purpose. 

When opening a new account we will provide you with CIBANK’s General Terms and Conditions for payment services for individuals, which include all the conditions and how to operate the account. Read the document carefully before signing the Framework Contract for Providing Payment Services. Along with the General Terms and Conditions you can also receive information about the current fees and commissions for all banking services which you can use with the current account. You can find the above-mentioned General Terms and Conditions on CIBANK’s website or on the notice boards in the bank offices.

You need to fill in three copies of the Request to Transfer an Account form, with the assistance of a bank employee. 

After opening an account (if you don’t already have a current account at CIBANK), we will provide you with the IBAN of your account and the BIC of CIBANK as well as with all the information related to your account for making  payment transactions. This information can be obtained at any time during the validity term of the Framework Contract for Payment Services for Individuals.

A CIBANK employee will assist you in selecting a preferred transfer date which is subject to further clarification and precise determination between us and the Old Bank.  For this purpose you will be contacted by us or by the Old Bank (in case you do not choose us a Main Point of Contact).
 

Please let our employee know whether you wish CIBANK to be your Main Point of Contact. If you have decided to select CIBANK as your Main Point of Contact, the CIBANK’s employees will send one notary-certified copy of the Request to Transfer an Account (see Note) to your Old Bank. Should you not choose us as your Main Point of Contact, you will need to personally submit to the Old Bank a copy of the Request to Transfer an Account (filled in with our assistance) and in this case no certification at a notary public is necessary: since you already are a client of your Old Bank, the latter will have to accept the request submitted by you under the normal conditions of service. 
 

After receiving the Request to Transfer an Account, the Old Bank is required to submit within a 7-day period  a List of Payments requested for transfer to an account at CIBANK – the New Bank – which has to include the regular direct debits and/or payment orders for credit transfers which are made from your old account. There is a template for this List, the same for all banks, which has to be filled in. If you have chosen us as a Main Point of Contact, the List will be send to us directly by the Old Bank. Otherwise, you will have to personally obtain it from the Old Bank and present it to us. For your security, it is necessary to confirm in writing your wish for the payments described in the List to be made from the CIBANK account or to let us know if you want any changes. If necessary, you shall fill in, with our assistance, new payment documents for the payment services from the List.

It is necessary to inform the persons from which you receive regular payments (salary, pensions, rent, etc) about the details of your new account opened at CIBANK to ensure correct performance of payments for which we will provide assistance as much as we can.

The transfer will take place on the transfer date determined after additional clarification between us and the Old Bank and according to the preferred date, specified by you. From the transfer date,   which is not later than 7 days after receiving the full information about the payments to be transferred, the Old Bank suspends payments and CIBANK, as the New Bank, begins to make payments from the account opened with us.  Up to that date your payments will be made from your old account and that’s why you need to have sufficient funds in it for their performance.
 

In the request for Transfer of an Account you should have already stated in writing whether you wish to terminate the contract for your old account and for it to be closed. This can happen only after all other actions mentioned above have been carried out and also if you have paid all the fees and payments owed by you to the Old Bank.

The contract for your old account will not be terminated and your account will not be closed if it has a negative balance, if you have unreturned bank cards or if there are other unresolved matters between you and the Old Bank with regard to the account. In such cases, regardless of your choice for a Main Point of Contact, the Old Bank may contact you directly to resolve any outstanding matters.  
 

Payments Directorate