How do bank supervisors strike a balance between market self-regulation and pro-active regulatory intervention? This book investigates the choice of banking supervision approach in four European Union member states from Central and Eastern Europe – Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, and Slovenia – after their transition to democracy and market economy.

This paper examines the philosophies which inspired the institution of central banking in Central and Eastern Europe in the interwar years. Influenced by the Financial Section of the League of Nations, the new central banks adopted laws which prohibited or severely restricted the financing of government fiscal debt. They were encouraged to centralize their payments systems and manage exchange rates to keep control of the money supply and achieve monetary stability. Before long they were forced to adopt further provisions in the area of banking supervision to regulate commercial banks. This paper considers the particular cases of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

This report assesses banking developments in Central and Eastern Europe and identifies the critical policy choices that will determine whether a country is to follow a high growth path leading to convergence with the mainstream of Western Europe.

This book charts the process of financial market reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Topics discussed will include the implications of future EU membership, and the strategies pursued by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

This study analyzes the main requirements placed on Central and Eastern Europe's financial systems during their transition to a market economy. It assesses the financial reforms already carried out in the countries of Central Europe, their adaptations of Western institutional models, and the lessons to be drawn from their experiences for the "second wave" reformers in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans.