Analysis of the Banking Sector Performance in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia Before and After the Global Financial Crisis

The focus of this study is the banking sector of the three neighbouring countries Bosnia and Herzegovina; Montenegro; and Serbia. These are former communist countries which have been going through the transition from centrally-planned economies to open market economies over the past 25 years. During the transition process, structural reforms were conducted to transform the banking sector into a sector suitable for open market economy. These reforms are considered to be the most successful ones in the region. Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09, the economies of the three selected countries were experiencing credit booms. The aim of this research was to examine how the banking sector is performing on an aggregated level years after the crisis and whether the performance is better or worse compared to the pre-crisis period. The findings show that the banking sector was performing better before the crisis in all three countries. After the crisis, the three countries experienced prolonged slow credit growth and had higher nonperforming loans.