Starting January 1, 2026, Bulgaria may adopt a new formula for calculating statutory late payment interest—a change that will coincide with the introduction of the euro and the modernization of the financial system.
For more than 30 years, the statutory interest rate has been determined according to the following formula: the Bulgarian National Bank’s base interest rate (BIR) plus 10 percentage points.
This scheme results in one of the highest legal late-payment interest rates in the EU.
For this reason, the Council of Ministers is proposing a new mechanism. Starting in 2026, the statutory interest rate will be calculated as the interest rate on the European Central Bank’s main refinancing operations plus 8 percentage points.
The new approach is in line with Directive 2011/7/EU and reflects the practice in eurozone countries.
Not only is the base rate being reduced (replacing the OLF with the ECB rate), but the surcharge is also being lowered—from 10 to 8 basis points. Thus, the interest rate remains an incentive for timely payment, but the surcharge is being eliminated, which had previously placed Bulgaria among the countries with the highest penalty interest rates.
The change does not require an amendment to the law—it can be implemented by a decree of the Council of Ministers, as provided for in Article 86 of the Obligations and Contracts Act.
