High NPL levels, an economy in need of de-dollarisation and the prominence of state-owned institutions are behind moves to consolidate and improve Belarus's banking sector. However, as Stefanie Linhardt reports, the pace of change is not as fast as some had hoped.
Belarus has been hit hard by falling oil prices, its heavy dependence on Russian exports and the devaluation of the rouble, which has led to a contraction of the economy. But banks are looking to SME financing – as well as a spell of de-dollarisation – to get the country back on a sound financial footing.
Belarus’s first deputy minister of the economy, Alexander Zaborovskiy, explains how a flexible exchange rate scheme and a more attractive investment environment can help the country survive knock-on effects of the economic difficulties facing neighbouring Russia and Ukraine.
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.
Despite facing crisis conditions in 2011, the Belarusian economy has proven to be remarkably robust, boasting plenty of untapped potential, and there are hopes that its privatisation process will lessen the dominance of large state-owned companies on the country's business landscape.
Closer economic integration of countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States has been discussed for many years without practical progress. The launch of a Single Economic Space between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus may be about to change that.
In the past decade, foreign investment and natural resources wealth have transformed the banking landscape in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The Banker's latest ranking for the region shows which countries have benefited the most from this change.