Adoption of the Euro in Bulgaria January 1, 2026

This bulletin serves as notification of a mandatory currency change in Bulgaria (BGR), impacting clients who process disbursement transactions to cardholders in that country.

Effective January 1, 2026, the Bulgarian Lev (BGN/975) will be replaced by the Euro (EUR/978) as the official currency in Bulgaria, as mandated by the European Central Bank and the Bulgarian National Bank. Clients must ensure that their systems are updated to prevent transaction declines.

I. Critical Action Items

This mandate impacts clients who facilitate push to card transactions where the beneficiary cardholder is located in Bulgaria.

Effective Date	Mandate & Impact	Required Merchant Action
00:00 Local Bulgaria Time, 1 January 2026	The official currency of Bulgaria transitions from the New Bulgarian Lev (BGN/975) to the Euro (EUR/978). Networks will begin declining new authorization requests that contain the currency code BGN/975.	(BGN/975) must no longer be selected as the transaction currency for new authorization requests intended for cardholders in Bulgaria.
Ongoing (User Interface)	The cardholder currency for account ranges issued in Bulgaria will transition from (BGN/975) to Euro (EUR/978).	Clients should expect BIN table updates for cards issued in Bulgaria to reflect the currency change. Clients may need to update user interfaces (UIs) to remove the Bulgarian Lev (BGN) as an option for end users who are sending funds to cardholders in Bulgaria.

Effective Date

Mandate & Impact

Required Merchant Action

00:00 Local
Bulgaria Time, 1
January 2026

The official currency of Bulgaria transitions from the New Bulgarian Lev (BGN/975) to the Euro (EUR/978).

Networks will begin declining new authorization requests that contain the currency code BGN/975.

(BGN/975) must no longer be selected as the transaction currency for new authorization requests intended for cardholders in Bulgaria.

Ongoing (User Interface)

The cardholder currency for account ranges issued in Bulgaria will transition from (BGN/975) to Euro (EUR/978).

Clients should expect BIN table updates for cards issued in Bulgaria to reflect the currency change.

Clients may need to update user interfaces (UIs) to remove the Bulgarian Lev (BGN) as an option for end users who are sending funds to cardholders in Bulgaria.

II. Technical Guidance

Clients that process disbursement (push to card) transactions should refer to TabaPay’s BIN tables or cardholder data provided via TabaPay’s Query Card API to determine the beneficiary cardholder's currency, ensuring that cards issued in Bulgaria are correctly mapped to EUR/978.
TabaPay will continue to publish Visa and Mastercard currency conversion rates in its FX tables for the Bulgarian Lev after the 1 January 2026 transition. This continued support for exchange rates is largely intended to support legacy refund and reconciliation processes.