One of the candidates during the Eurogroup chair elections and a keen advocacy of fiscal consolidation, Slovakian finance minister Peter Kazimir has played a key role in the country’s fiscal and economic achievements. But is the country’s economy at risk of overheating? Stefanie Linhardt finds out.

Bulgarian lenders bucked the trend as Tier 1 capital contracted in most of central and eastern Europe, while Czech institutions retained their status as most profitable banks in the region.

Central and eastern European banks in the EU faced a sluggish 2013, but Poland led the region in terms of growth and the Czech Republic in terms of returns. Baltic banks are also starting to rise to the challenge.

The first yen issue for Slovakia since 1994, a debut Finnish non-sovereign samurai bond deal and a growing number of dollar mandates are raising the profile of the debt capital markets team at Japan's Daiwa

Slovakia's banks are a rare bright spot in a crisis-strewn eurozone with their strong balance sheets, but they are not immune from falling external demand and tax hikes.

Citi’s debt capital markets team switched nimbly between reopening Russian markets when risk appetite was high and placing Gulf state sukuk when investors searched for safety.

The Czech and Slovak republics headed down different paths when Slovakia adopted the euro in 2009 but the business model and performance of the two countries’ banks remain remarkably similar.