The Refinancing Structure of Banks in Selected CESEE Countries

In this paper, we present systematic regional and cross-country information about the refinancing structure of the banking sector in selected Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries. We use the most recent data available (from mid-2008 until end-2009) to focus on the situation of CESEE banking sectors following the intensification of the financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. At that time, there were fears of spillover effects, given the strong reliance of most of these countries’ banking sectors on foreign funding. Our analysis shows that in the second half of 2008, most CESEE banking sectors received additional funds from abroad, while in the course of 2009, net capital flows to banks turned at least temporarily negative in all countries under review except Poland. However, the size of net outflows on the liability side of banks’ balance sheets differed substantially across countries. Looking at the whole period from mid-2008 to end-2009, our findings suggest that outflows affected above all banking sectors that had very high net foreign liabilities at the onset of the crisis (i.e. in the Baltic countries, particularly Latvia and Estonia) and banking sectors with comparatively low levels of foreign ownership (Slovenia, Ukraine and Russia).