The south-eastern European states formerly associated with the Soviet Union have been slow to privatise state-owned assets when compared with their western European neighbours, but political reforms and softening attitudes mean fresh momentum is spurring a wave of long-delayed sell-offs in the region, particularly in Serbia and Slovenia.
Slovenia's economy was in a precarious position, even by current European standards, as recently as 2013. The country's central bank governor, Boštjan Jazbec, explains how a return to health has been achieved through methods that were not universally popular.
While consolidation is likely to change the face of Slovenia’s banking system in the coming years, in the near term issues with low profitability are top of the agenda. And, despite the creation of a bad bank to expunge the problem of non-performing loans, many banks still have a far from healthy loan book.
For years, Austrian lenders Erste Bank and Raiffeisen Bank have enjoyed strong profits at their central and eastern European operations, but with growth in these economies slowing, more recent results suggest that they may need to rethink their strategies in the region.
The eurozone sovereign debt crisis has not just affected national treasuries, but also European supranationals and government-related entities. Philip Alexander hears from a range of larger and smaller borrowers across the eurozone and beyond.
Slovenia was one of the worst hit by the eurozone crisis and its banks have struggled to recover with high non-performing loan ratios and low returns on equity. They are however punching above their weight in capital terms in The Banker’s rankings. Writer Nick Saywell