SOFIA, Bulgaria — What seemed at first to be a short-term banking crisis is looking more like a chronic condition.

But the name of the affliction probably does not matter as much to companies and consumers as the money, about $4 billion in all, that has been stranded at a big Bulgarian bank since the government seized it in late June.

Most Bulgarian banks are operating as usual. But for the 200,000 or so businesses and individuals with deposits at Corporate Commercial Bank, the country’s fourth-largest institution, financial life has hardly returned to normal. The government has said the bank, known here as K.T.B., might not reopen before December.

As a result, some businesses are having trouble making payroll, and many families are having to scrape by without access to cash.