Restructuring and Development of Banking Sectors in Advanced Transition Countries: Lessons for Bulgaria. The Case of Poland

The project was completed in July 2001. Financed by the East-West Management Institute (EWMI) and CASE, the project formed part of a larger undertaking carried out under the sponsorship of the USAID program 'Partners for Financial Stability'. Apart from CASE, the wider project also involved: P. Gaspar (International Center for Economic Growth, Budapest), M. Mejstrik and A. Dvorakova (Faculty of Social Sciences at the Charles University, Prague), and the Economic Policy Institute (Sofia).

The aim of the project was to pass onto our Bulgarian partners the experience gathered from the restructuring of the banking sector in Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. The report on the subject of the Polish banking sector was prepared by E. Balcerowicz and A. Bratkowski, with the cooperation of A. Orlik, R. Nawrat, A. Wojciechowski, J. Iwińska and K. Wilary. The study was presented at a conference in Sofia in June 2001.

A summary of the project was published in CASE Report no. 44, 'Restructuring and Development of the Banking Sector in Poland. Lessons to be Learnt by Less Advanced Transition Countries'. The Economic Policy Institute, a partner and recipient of the results of the CASE team research work, also published a paper from the conference entitled 'Restructuring and Development of the Banking Sector in Central and South-Eastern European Countries: Mutual Lessons from Practical Experience in Transition". This presents the experience of eight countries of Central and Southern Europe (including Poland) in restructuring the banking sector.