Following a period of privatization and restructuring, commercial banks in Central and Eastern Europe and, more recently, in the Balkans have rapidly expanded their lending to the private sector. This paper describes the causes of this expansion, assesses future trends, and evaluates its policy...

We analyze the structure, performance, and role of banking systems in the three member countries of the East African Community-Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda-against the backdrop of recent financial sector reforms. Focusing on the behavior of different types of banks, we find no support for the...

An endogenous growth model with financial intermediation demonstrates how deposit insurance and prudential regulatory forbearance lead to banking crises and growth declines. The model assumptions are based on features of the Japanese financial system and regulation. The model demonstrates how...

In this paper a simple optimizing model is developed to analyze the implications of a banking crisis. Banks are incorporated by assuming that they intermediate funds between firms and households. It is shown that when depositors perceive the quality of deposits to have deteriorated, they switch...

Recent developments have increased questions about vulnerabilities in Central and Eastern European Countries (CEE) that are experiencing credit booms. This paper analyzes the role of foreign-owned banks in these credit booms. The results show that the CEE countries depend on foreign banks, and...

Theoretical models of the role of credit in business cycles and of the transmission mechanism have largely concluded that, given capital market imperfections, credit conditions may amplify and propagate the effect of shocks in the economy. This paper compares the behavior of loans to households...

This paper empirically estimates the main determinants of bank credit growth during the 2008 financial crisis. Using a sample covering over 80 countries, this paper finds that larger bank credit booms prior to the crisis and lower GDP growth of trading partners are among the most important...

This paper presents a modeling framework that delivers joint forecasts of indicators of systemic real risk and systemic financial risk, as well as stress-tests of these indicators as impulse responses to structural shocks identified by standard macroeconomic and banking theory. This framework is...

This paper aims at identifying a causal relationship going from bank interest rates and credit rationing to usury. We manage the endogeneity issues by exploiting the variables that are related to bankruptcy proceedings as exogenous factors that affect bank variables, but not the other...