CEE banks – at a high-water mark?

For many years after the financial crisis, Raiffeisen Bank International’s annual summer report on the banking landscape of central and eastern Europe made for fairly dismal reading.

The gloom has gradually lifted, as restructuring and economic recovery have brought relief from the post-2009 pain. But the exuberance of this year’s report is unparalleled in recent years.

RBI’s analysts sound almost giddy with excitement as they catalogue the remarkable performance of banks across the region in 2018. Most metrics hit multi-year highs – or lows, in the case of non-performing loan (NPL) ratios.