The Central European banking industry is dominated by foreign-owned banks. During the recent crisis, for the first time since the transition, foreign parent companies were frequently in worse financial conditions than their subsidiaries. This situation created a unique opportunity to study new...

We study the impact of late adoption of online banking and early presence on social media on the market power of small banks in Poland. We combine publicly available information with two unique, hand-collected datasets on the geo-location of all bank branches and on small banks' Internet and...

This study investigates the interactions between the financial health of cooperative banks and SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) performance. Using a unique data set on local banking markets in Poland, we establish that a strong financial standing of SMEs improves the profitability of...

This paper investigates the relationship between local banking structures, SME access to debt financing and SME performance. Using a unique dataset on bank branch locations in Poland and county-level and firm-level data, we conclude that a strong position for local, cooperative banks facilitates...