Finance News

Best Banks in Central and Eastern Europe for 2009

The following are the «Best Banks in Central and Eastern Europe for 2009» according to rankings published by Global Finance magazine:

Country	Bank
Albania	International Commercial Bank
Belarus	Belarusbank
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Raiffeisen Bank Bosnia Hercegovina
Bulgaria	Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria
Croatia	Privredna Banka Zagreb
Cyprus	Bank of Cyprus
Czech Republic	Raiffeisenbank CZ
Estonia	Swedbank
Hungary	OTP Bank
Latvia	Aizkraukles Banka
Lithuania	Swedbank
Macedonia	Komercijalna Banka
Malta	HSBC Bank Malta
Moldova	Moldova Agroindbank
Poland	Bank Pekao
Romania	BRD-Groupe Societe Generale
Russia	VTB
Serbia	Raiffeisen Banka
Slovakia	Tatra banka
Slovenia	Nova Ljubljanska Banka
Turkey	Akbank
Ukraine	UkrSibbank

The top ranking banks in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Czech Republic are subsidiaries of Raiffeisen which is one of the largest financial groups in Austria. Austrian banks expanded heavily in Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. One of the reasons for this expansion is that Austrians have always viewed this area as their own back yard due to historical ties. However while this strategy initially was a huge success for Austrian banks, after the credit crunch started and emerging markets in Europe were affected severely Austrian banks were impacted equally.

In the Baltic countries of Lithuania and Estonia the subsidiaries of Sweden-based Swedbank are the winners. Swedbank was founded in 1820 as Sweden’s first savings bank. Today the group has 272 branches in the Baltic countries and 216 branches in Ukraine. As with Raiffeisen of Austria, Swedbank has been suffering due to its Baltic exposure as many of these economies are in recession. Latvia, for example is on the verge of collapse or a currency devaluation. The fortunes of Swedbank are tied to the stability and growth of the Baltic countries.

Source: Global Finance
Date: 14.05.2010 [ID: 250]