Financial Sectors in EU Accession Countries

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Financial Sectors in EU Accession Countries Financial Sectors in EU Accession Countries EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK EUROPEAN Financial Sectors in EU Accession Countries Financial Sectors in EU Financial Sectors in EU Accession Countries Editor: Christian Thimann Published by: © European Central Bank, July 2002 Address Kaiserstrasse 29 60311 Frankfurt am Main Germany Postal address Postfach 16 03 19 60066 Frankfurt am Main Germany Telephone +49 69 1344 0 Internet http://www.ecb.int Fax +49 69 1344 6000 Telex 411 144 ecb d Copies of the individual articles can also be downloaded from the ECB’s website. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the ECB. No responsibility for them should be attributed to the ECB or to any of the other institutions with which the authors are affiliated. All rights reserved by the authors. Editor: Christian Thimann Typeset and printed by: Kern & Birner GmbH + Co. ISBN 92-9181-292-7 Table of Contents Foreword “The importance of financial sector developments in EU accession countries” T. Padoa-Schioppa (European Central Bank) .....................................................................005 Summary “Financial sectors in EU accession countries: Issues for the workshop and summary of the discussion” C. Thimann (European Central Bank) ................................................................................007 “Key features of the financial sectors in EU accession countries” G. Caviglia, G. Krause and C. Thimann (European Central Bank) ...................................015 “The financial sector in Bulgaria: structure, functioning and trends” V. Yotzov (Bulgarian National Bank) .................................................................................031 “The financial sector in Cyprus: structure, performance and main developments” L. Georgiadou (Central Bank of Cyprus) ...........................................................................051 “The financial sector in the Czech Republic: an assessment of its current state of development and functioning” P. Ihnat and P. Prochazka (Czech National Bank) ..............................................................067 “Structure and performance of Estonia’s financial sector” I. Lepik and J. Tõrs (Central Bank of Estonia)...................................................................085 “The financial sector in Hungary” B. Zsámboki (National Bank of Hungary) .........................................................................105 “Latvia’s financial sector: stage of development and challenges in EU accession” J. Zubkova, E. Kauzens, I. Tillers and M. Prusis (Bank of Latvia) .................................... 119 “Lithuania’s financial sector: an overview” T. Garbaravicius and R. Kuodis (Bank of Lithuania) .........................................................137 “The financial sector in Malta: structure, performance and trends” D. Pullicino and R. Saliba (Central Bank of Malta) ...........................................................153 “Financial sector issues in Poland” P. Bednarski and J. Osin´ski (National Bank of Poland) .....................................................171 “Romania’s financial sector in transition and on the road to EU accession” C. Bichi and D. Antohi (National Bank of Romania) ........................................................189 “Financial sector situation and development in the Slovak Republic” J. Janosik and L. Malina (National Bank of Slovakia) .......................................................207 “The structure and the functioning of the financial sector in Slovenia” U. Cufer, J. Fabijan, M. Majic, D. Prelovšek and J. Tratnik (Bank of Slovenia) ...............217 List of participants ..............................................................................................................229 Exchange rates as of end December 2001 ..........................................................................231 Foreword The importance of financial sector developments in EU accession countries Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank The advent of the euro has had, and continues to have, a major impact on the European financial sector, with the main direction of impact being one of further integration. Further integration of the financial sector throughout the euro area is of significant interest to the ECB, as it will strengthen the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission and contribute to greater efficiency and competitiveness of the euro area’s real economy. It is also of interest to accession countries, as it has to guide their own integration process with the euro area. Important steps towards further integration in the euro area’s financial sector are already visible, and the process is gaining increasing momentum. In the banking sector, integration can be considered as achieved in the market for unsecured interbank loans and deposits, and it is also far advanced in the repo market, despite a few remaining differences in the cross- border settlement of collateralised transactions. In banking activities vis-à-vis the corporate sector, the areas of syndicated loans, corporate bond underwriting and equity issues have also witnessed greater integration, which is reflected, inter alia, in narrowing price differentials for such services within the euro area. Greater integration has also characterised capital markets, including equity, government bond and corporate bond markets. The general trend towards greater financial integration has been bolstered by the increasing harmonisation of the regulatory framework and the increasing integration of the underlying financial infrastructure. For accession countries, the changes ongoing in the euro area’s financial sectors indicate that these countries need to catch up with a moving target. Financial sectors in accession countries will not only grow – in breadth, depth and efficiency – but they will also become further integrated with the euro area. Much of this further integration will be market-driven, but it will be – and for some aspects needs to be – supported by actions of the authorities. The adoption of the EU’s legal framework, a greater integration of the financial infrastructure with that in the euro area and a strong cross-border collaboration of supervisors will be important policy elements in this process. Financial sectors in accession countries display a number of distinct features. Most of these features – especially those related to size and efficiency – put them still behind financial sectors in the euro area. Mostly as a result of the legacy from the past, financial sectors in accession countries are still relatively small and not yet fully developed in terms of market segments or instruments. This is particularly true for capital markets, which only play a marginal role in many accession countries’ financial sectors, but it is also true for most indicators of banking activities. However, there is one feature for which the financial environment in accession countries can be considered ahead of that in the euro area, namely the local availability of services provided by cross-border operators, mainly due to the wide extent of cross-border ownership. 6 Foreword In accession countries as a whole, foreign ownership already stands above 65% and will rise further once the final privatisation rounds that are ongoing in some countries have been completed. In a few countries the banking sector is even entirely in foreign hands. In the euro area countries, in contrast, foreign ownership is highly limited. Only about 20% of the banks’ capital in euro area countries is in foreign ownership, and only in four countries is this ratio at least 30%. In the euro area a number of factors have contributed to limiting strategic cross- border ownership, including a low degree of market integration in the past, differences in banking culture across countries and a desire (often shared by authorities and banks alike) to keep “national champions” in domestic hands. These factors are about to weaken – at highly different speeds – so that over the longer term one can well imagine cross-border ownership levels rising across the area. Many of the experiences the current EU accession countries are going through will then become relevant for the current euro area members. Structural developments in the financial sector are mostly gradual, which means that large changes can only be observed over a long time period. Therefore, although they will undergo continuous changes over the coming years, it is likely that financial sectors both in the euro area and in accession countries may not look fundamentally different from today when the first of the current EU accession countries will adopt the euro. As a result, the financial sector in an enlarged euro area will look quite different from that of today, and three main features can already be identified: first, the overall size and stage of the development of the financial sector relative to the size of the underlying economy will be somewhat lower than today; second, the structure and functioning of the financial sector will be slightly more heterogeneous across the euro area; and, third, the degree of cross-border ownership will be larger than in the euro area today. The first two features fall into the domain of monetary policy transmission, even though their importance for the euro area-wide monetary policy will be highly limited given the low economic weight of the accession countries in an enlarged euro area for the foreseeable future. The
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