The economic narratives of Southeast Europe during the first part of the 20th century are currently being re-written. A story of failed industrialisation and delayed modernisation during the Interwar period has dominated since the pioneering work of Gerschenkron, but not enough aggregate data...

This paper aims to present the main developments of banking and finance in Albania in a historical perspective. This historical overview might help to better understand not only the great difficulties and obstacles the country faced in the past but also the successes it achieved. It is widely...

This paper discusses the world industry of savings banks, a genuine world collaborative consortium, through which, from the 1950s, the International Savings Banks Institute (nowadays, the World Savings Banks Institute and European Savings Banks Group) was highly active in introducing ICT to...

Technical advances in retail banking have had profound repercussions for the competitiveness of individual firms and for the sector as a whole. This paper looks at the role played by new technological resources within the context of organizational change and the products and services offered by...

We study how firm-bank relationships and corporate financing evolved during the Twentieth century in Britain. We document a remarkable transition from single to multiple relationships. Transparent, larger, and global companies were more likely to add a bank, especially when located in more...

Why do some banks fail in financial crises while others survive? This article answers this question by analysing the effect of the Dutch financial crisis of the 1920s on 142 banks, of which 33 failed. We find that choices of balance sheet composition and product market strategy made in the...

The purpose of this report is to analyse the impact of the financial sector on the real sector of the economy in the selected old (France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom) and new (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) EU member states. The specific objectives are: 1. Analysis of the...

Why do some banks fail in financial crises while others survive? This article answers this question by analysing the effect of the Dutch financial crisis of the 1920s on 142 banks, of which 33 failed. We find that choices of balance sheet composition and product market strategy made in the...

The process of fundamental changes of Slovak banking sector has had essential influence on the concentration and on the character of banking products. The article is oriented on analysing the competition level using Herfindahl index and CR3 and CR5 indexes. Indeces are used to compare the level...

The financial services sectors of Romania and Estonia moved towards privatization in sharply contrasting manners. For a long time Romania's enthusiasm for its 1998 promise to the IMF to privatize its leading banks was only a commitment on paper; few steps were made towards its fulfillment. By...