The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the Banking Sector of Western Balkans: Cross-country Comparison Analysis

The aim of this paper is to examine the extent and impact of the global financial crises on position of the banking sector of Western Balkans covering both pre-crisis and crisis period as well as to provide an explanation for these trends. This paper deals with cross-country comparison analysis of banking in Western Balkans before and during crises. Altough, depth of the crisis in the banking sector of Western Balkans is not yet fully evident, selected indicators in this paper point to its direction. The research alone has determined the paper's structure which consist an analysis of the impact of the global financial crisis on recent occurrences in the banking of the region. Impact of global financial crises has been transmitted on the position banking sector selected countries through several sources, especially through: impact profitability, credit growth has dropped significantly and asset quality has deteriorated markedly. Altough the economies of Western Balkan countries in crisis period performed differently the results of the comparison show that theglobal financial crisis has a substantial impact on the banking sector of the region.