About us

Establishment

The Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) was established on March 1st, 2003 under the Financial Supervision Commission Act. It is an institution that is independent from the executive authority and reports its activity to the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria. The Commission is a specialized government body for regulation and control over different segments of the financial system – capital market, insurance market, health insurance market, pension insurance market.

Mission

The primary mission of the institution is to assist through legal, administrative and informational means for the maintenance of stability and transparency on the non-banking financial sector, and to ensure the protection of the consumers of financial services and products.

Regulatory activity

The Commission’s regulatory activity includes drafting and adoption of regulations and instructions provided for in the legislation, issuance of guidelines and instructions regarding the implementation and interpretation of the codes and laws.

The Commission adopts  secondary legislative acts concerning laws’ implementation in relation to the carrying out of financial supervision. The regulation of the market participants’ activity is in conformity with the European legislation, norms and practices.

Usually, the legislative amendments are necessitated by changes that have occurred in the financial system itself, the introduction of new products and technologies or in case imperfections of the effective regulatory framework are established.

Sanctions

Upon establishment of offences on the supervised entities’ side, the Commission imposes coercive administrative measures. They include the issuing of recommendations to undertake specific actions, fines and property sanctions.

Licensing regime

In its licensing activity the Commission is guided by the principle of impartiality and implementation of a unified approach and criteria with respect to all applicants. The Commission examines the documents that have been attached to the applications for permit issuance or amendment of one that has already been granted in view of their compliance with the regulatory requirements. It is being established whether all the required documents and data have been provided and whether the legal limitations to certain licensing proceedings have been complied with.

For example:

– Capital amount and structure;

– Origin of the resources with which the share contributions have been paid;

– Existence (lack of) relatedness between individuals and/or legal entities in accordance with the legal provisions;

– Requirements to the members of managerial and supervisory bodies and other special requirements

Supervision

The unified financial supervision over the supervised entities’ activity monitors compliance with the legal requirements, the companies’ financial status and the reliability of information that they provide.

The Commission’s supervisory activity is being carried out through off-site supervision and on-site examinations of the licensed market participants’ activity.

The purpose of FSC’s controlling activity is prevention and termination of legal violations in view of ensuring protection of the interests of investors, insurers and the insured persons.

Sanctions

Upon establishment of offences on the supervised entities’ side, the Commission imposes coercive administrative measures. They include the issuing of recommendations to undertake specific actions, fines and property sanctions.