Bulgaria’s guaranteed deposits added up to BGN 37.1 billion in 2009, according to the annual report of the Bulgarian Deposit Insurance Fund (BDIF), Dnevnik wrote. The so-called preferential deposits - which yield interest rates agreed between the lender and the customer on a case-by-case basis -- are not eligible for guarantee.

Preferential deposits are usually opened by corporate customers or deep-pocketed individual physical entities or deposits exceeding a cap of 50,000-100,000 currency units. They were a big buzz when the deposit war on the Bulgarian banking market was in its peak and banks were offering juicy interest to business customers rates to retain customers.

The combined volume of deposits of individuals and non-credit companies in Bulgaria added up to BGN 43.5 billion at the end of 2009. The total number of deposits within the system was 11,540,566 and the average deposit was BGN 3,215. Of the total volume, BGN 20.95 billion have blanket guarantee topping at BGN 100,000, which accounts for 56.5% of all deposits eligible for guarantee. A further BGN 16.2 billion exceed the BGN 100,000 cap, which means that in case of bank bankruptcy the depositor will only receive the amount reaching up to the limit.