Slowdown hits CEE banks hard
Two themes dominate the changes in this year's rankings compared with 2008. First, the heavy sell-off in the currencies of many central and eastern European countries, including Russia, Hungary and Ukraine, has reduced Tier 1 capital in dollar terms. Second, liquidity crises and the revelation of high non-performing loan (NPL) ratios on portfolios that had not previously been tested in an economic downturn has brought a number of banks close to collapse, knocking them out of the Top 1000 altogether.
Overcautious approach may impede progress
President Alexander Lukashenko’s tight controls have ensured that Belarusians have not suffered in the slow transition to a market economy. But the same restrictions are curbing growth and foreign investment, as Ben Aris reports from Minsk.
