Convergence of bank competition in Central and Eastern European countries: Does ownership matter?

Many reforms of banking market liberalization in CEE countries raised the question on the convergence of banks' competitive behaviour, particularly because of the presence of foreign banks from same European regions. We find within-country convergence of three used bank competition measures, with higher convergence levels of market power and of competitive behaviour, and with faster convergence trend for foreign banks. Despite the efforts for banking market integration, there is no general movement toward across-countries convergence of competitive behaviour of CEE banks, neither for foreign nor for domestic institutions, higher dispersion of countries being however observed for the former.