108-124

• Roman, Angela
• Anton, Sorin Gabriel

The aim of the paper is to analyse the main features of the banking systems of five countries from Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, which adhered at the European Union in 2004, Bulgaria and Romania, which became member of the European Union at first January of 2007). In the study we took into consideration the Republic of Slovenia and Slovakia - new member states of the Monetary Union - to highlight the discrepancies between countries and the efforts necessary on the way to convergence. The analyses undertaken in the paper show some common features of the banking systems from these countries, such as: the dominant position of the banks in the national financial systems, even if in the last years we can observe the increased role played by other financial intermediaries (insurance companies, investments funds, leasing companies); the little role of capital markets in financing the companies ; the prevalence of foreign-owned banks, with positive influence on the development and consolidation of banking system, the rapid increase of non-government credit (especially, credits denominated in foreign currencies). Even if these banking systems have achieved important progresses, their development and efficiency is different from one country to another. While in some countries, the banking sector development is similar to the Euro Zone, in other countries there are significant disparities. In the context of the current financial crisis, we intend to show the latest transformations of the banking systems from these countries. The current financial crisis has determined the decrease of the rate of growth of credits and even halting lending in some countries, which entailed significant intensification of the concerns of national and international authorities in adopting urgent measures in order to restore the stability of the economies and to resume the credit activity.

• Economics and Business

• Οικονομία
• Finance
• Economic policy

financial system, banking sector, financial intermediation, banking credits, lending structure, credit institutions, banking intermediation, loans granted households, financial stability, the current financial crisis

Περιέχει διαγράμματα, πίνακες και βιβλιογραφία, JEL classification codes: E44, E51, G21.