The CEE Banking Sector from the Investor's Perspective

The banking sector was one of the segments of the global economy that were strongest hit by the global financial crisis of 2008 as well as by the subsequent European debt crisis. The Central and Eastern European (GEE) banking sector was no exception. It wasn't a source of the problems, in fact it was in quite a good shape thanks to its restructuring and reforming during the 1990's and early 2000's. The problems were imported from abroad Although some parts of the global banking sector have already recovered, some banks are still in less or more serious trouble. This paper aims to analyze the post-crisis condition of the most important GEE banks and to compare their investment attractiveness with their Western European peers. The evaluation of basic fundamental factors and stock market indicators shows that the biggest of the "Original CEE" banks are undervalued compared to their Western European peers.