Reconstruction of Estonian banking system started twenty years ago. Estonia built up for the market economy a banking oriented financial sector, which is centred on commercial banks. During the two decades less than ten banks remained from more than 50 licensed commercial banks, the rest were...

Internationalisation of Estonian banking sector has mainly been driven by market-seeking argument, but also competition about the strategic advantage of first entry in Latvian and Lithuanian markets played important role. The most successful example is Hansapank, which has developed from a small...