FOREIGN BANKS AND STABILITY OF BANKS' FOREIGN CLAIMS IN EASTERN COUNTRIES

Since the 90's, between 70 and 90% of banking assets in ceecs' banking system are held by foreign located banks. The huge presence of foreign banks in CEECS leads also to a strong dependence to banking cross-border claims. Are foreign located affiliates a factor that attracts foreign claims in the host country? Does their presence stabilize banking foreign flows? Using a push&pull framework, we adopt a macroeconomic point of view by using balance-of-payment data concerning banking foreign claims on all sectors in CEECS. Tests with panel data show that the presence of foreign banks is a substitute for banking foreign cross-border claims but it plays no role on their stability.