Foreign News: Big One Bank

Still on closest, friendliest terms with Italy is Bulgaria, despite the fact that II Duce’s plan of marrying Princess Giovanna to Tsar Boris of Bulgaria was blocked at the very last minute (when His Majesty was actually en route to Rome) by Pope Pius XI (TIME, April 22).

Fortnight ago the “Big Four Banks” of Italy were regrouped by a merger under the aegis of the Dictator into the “Big Three Banks” (TIME, Feb. 24). Perhaps by coincidence, but certainly as a result of Italian and Bulgarian minds again working along parallel lines, a similar merger followed last week in Sofia.

Without previous warning Bulgaria’s fiscal “Big Three,” the Bulgarska Banca. Banque Franco-Bulgar and Banque du Credit National suddenly merged into a “Big One Bank,” called United Bulgarian Banks.