Since the late 1990s financial strategies for opening Eastern European markets and entry strategies of foreign banks in most CESEE countries included triggers for strong credit growth, especially in the private sector. What are the transition results on the macro level? Does this credit growth...

The paper focuses on the question whether banks and capital markets in Central Europe are capable of exerting a positive influence on enterprise performance at the present stage of the economic transformation. These markets are characterised by privileged, collaborative interfirm/interbank...

We investigate the role of leasing in the lending boom in Central and South Eastern Europe (CEE and SEE). We contribute by (1) providing a full picture of the financing situation in Eastern Europe, where leasing plays a more important role than elsewhere; (2) by investigating the...

After seven years of transformation it is getting more and more difficult to blame the communist heritage for the state of the financial markets in the ten Central European countries which are candidates for EU membership. Only Hungary and Estonia have made sufficient progress in financial...