Countries that have experienced banking crises have adopted one of two distinct approaches toward the resolution of nonperforming assets--a centralized or a decentralized solution. A centralized approach entails setting up a government agency--an asset management company--with the full responsibility for acquiring, restructuring, and selling of the assets. A decentralized approach relies on banks and other creditors to manage and resolve nonperforming assets. Dado and Klingebiel study banking crises where governments adopted a decentralized, creditor-led workout strategy following systemic crises. They use a case study approach and analyze seven banking crises in which governments mainly relied on banks to resolve nonperforming assets. The study suggests that out of the seven cases, only Chile, Norway, and Poland successfully restructured their corporate sectors with companies attaining viable financial structures. The analysis underscores that as in the case of a centralized strategy the prerequisites for a successful decentralized restructuring strategy are manifold. The successful countries significantly improved the banking system's capital position, enabling banks to write down loan losses; banks as well as corporations had adequate incentives to engage in corporate restructuring; and ownership links between banks and corporations were limited or severed during crises. This paper--a product of the Financial Sector Operations and Policy Department--is part of a larger effort in the department to examine the resolution of financial crises.

'. . .Sevic offers an accessible and closely argued account of financial sector reform processes in Southeast Europe. Sevic's book is the result of an extensive research project on banking sector reform in the Southeast European transitional economies undertaken since late 1998. . . an extensive look at this timely volume will pay handsome dividends and could help devise successful business plans.' - Jens Bastian, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 'The book will be a very agreeable reading to experts on the region. Its comprehensive analysis emphasises past and current conflicts, the recourse to currency board arrangements, and the persisting asymmetries with reference to the functioning of the banking system in Central Europe. . . Banking Reforms in South-East Europe is a book that college students in banking and financial markets, and banking analysts should read.' - Bruno S. Sergi, South-East Europe Review Banking Reforms in South-East Europe gives a critical and detailed overview of banking system restructuring in the transitional countries of South-Eastern Europe - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Yugoslavia - and offers suggestions for future reforms.

Russia has embarked upon a difficult process of systemic transformation and economic opening up. While the initial strong GDP decline seemed to have ended in 1997, the real development was facing even more difficult problems as output declined sharply after the Ruble and banking crisis of August 1998: inflation started to increase again, exports and imports were falling, capital flight increasing and unemployment rising. There is broad disappointment in Russia regarding the transformation failure in 1998 since so many people had hoped that the end of the Soviet command economy would bring democracy, prosperity and international integration. While Poland has been able to double per capita income in the 1990s it has fallen by 50% in Russia and this despite considerable IMF involvement and some (modest) support from other international organizations. What were the reasons for transformation failure in the 1990s? What are the ingredients for long term sustainable transformation? What are the internal and international requirements to avoid a second - possibly tragic - failure of transformation in Russia? An international group of researchers has focussed on these problems during a two-year research project financed by the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation. A series of papers were presented at workshops in Potsdam, Bonn and Moscow in 1999 where this book is devoted to four important issues: the Russian transformation crisis, the topic of restructuring, the need for stabilizing Russia and the requirements for modernizing Russia.

Analyzes the causes of the inflation, debt, and growth crises that have occurred over the past 25 years, the paths to recovery, and the role of foreign aid in resolving the problems.

Loans, foreign, economic conditions.

Annotation. The regulation of network industries has emerged as a key issue on the European policy agenda, yet there is little high-quality research capable of informing the European policy debate. The Monitoring European Deregulation (MED) series was launched by CEPR and SNS in 1997 and features new, policy-oriented research on the liberalization of the European markets of the major network industries (previous reports have focused on telecommunications and electricity). Addressed to a wide audience of both academics and European decisionmakers in the private-sector and policy communities, at both the national and EU level, the new reportwhich focuses on the deregulation of the European banking systemwill play an important role in influencing current thinking on these issues and contributing to the policy debate.

The rebirth of competition and the extensive "exit" that has resulted are among the most important developments in Central Europe since the demise of Communism. This text examines why, how, and to what extent enterprises have reduced their size or left the market altogether during the first years of the transition from socialism to capitalism in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.