SOFIA, Bulgaria — When Greece looked as if it might default on its debts early this year, Nikolay Stoyanov, a Bulgarian financial journalist, decided he had had enough of “Greek madness.” So he withdrew his modest savings from one of four big Greek-owned banks that do business in Bulgaria and moved it to his wife’s account at a German-owned lender.

He said he was not particularly worried that he might lose his money, but simply wanted to be on the safe side after following the dizzying twists and turns of the Greek debt drama as part of his daily job.

He kept his account open at a Bulgarian branch of Greece’s Alpha Bank, but now uses it only to receive his salary and pay electricity and other bills.

With Alpha and three other of Bulgaria’s top 10 banks owned by Greek lenders caught in a whirlwind of fear and panic at home in Greece, Bulgaria, a former Communist country that is today the poorest member of the European Union, has found itself under unwelcome scrutiny from financial experts and Western banks worried that Greece’s troubles could spread havoc farther afield.