During the boom years in the run-up to the global financial and economic crisis, Greece established close economic ties with the Southeastern European (SEE) region. As a consequence, the current Greek sovereign debt crisis could potentially have adverse economic implications for SEE. Both real...

In the course of the boom years from 2004 to 2008, Serbia accumulated sizeable macrofinancial imbalances, which made the country vulnerable to external shocks during the global crisis and rendered the process of crisis management more complex. As these vulnerabilities materialized, Serbia had to...

The Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries have, to some extent, felt the impact of the international financial market turbulence observed since July 2007. While CESEE markets tended to follow the negative global investor sentiment in general, they performed relatively well...

This article explores the interrelationship between bank governance and financial stability in general and in the ten Central, Eastern and Southeastern European EU Member States (CESEE MS) in particular. Agency theory is used to illustrate that banks are engaged in multiple agency relationships....

The paper first reviews the main drivers of the growth and real convergence process in central, eastern and south-eastern Europe (CESEE) since 2000 and assesses the key macro-financial strengths and vulnerabilities of the region at the beginning of the global economic and financial crisis. The...

After a long-lasting boom period, the global crisis put the resilience of Croatia’s economic and financial system to a severe test. The country has mastered this test so far. To some extent, the crisis also altered the country’s macrofinancial risk profile, although – against the backdrop...

The Croatian banking sector underwent sweeping structural changes in the late 1990s and has remained relatively stable and profitable since then. Driven by brisk credit growth, financial deepening has continued rapidly in recent years, with the level of bank intermediation now being among the...