An independent institution responsible for issuing all banknotes and coins in the country, BNB is tasked with safekeeping the government's currency reserves.

On 25 January 1879, the Russian Imperial Commissar in Bulgaria, Knyaz Alexander Dondukov-Korsakov, approved the Charter of the Bulgarian National Bank.

The Law on the foundation of the BNB and the new Charter, both passed in 1885, reorganised the Bank, granting it monopoly of note issue.

The Bulgarian Lev came out of the wars strongly depreciated, and during the decade afterward the Bank made efforts to restore its value.

In 1928, Bulgaria was granted a large "Stabilisation Loan" coordinated by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.

In 1997 another Law on the BNB superseded the previous one; it reorganized the monetary system, and from 1 July a currency board arrangement was put in place.

In 1998, the BNB Printing Works was opened for business, and it began the production of banknotes and bonds with a very high level of security.

The current edifice was commissioned to renowned architects Ivan Vasilyov and Dimitar Tsolov and built between 1934 and 1939 in the non-decorative Neoclassical style of the time.