The provision of long-term financing in the transition economies

A new data set from the transition economies shows that the private sector has increasing access to long-term bank financing. In a few transition countries credit has similar maturity structure to that in Western Europe, while in others credit remains mostly short-term. Several factors explain these differences: the political and institutional environment, inflation, economic and financial development, and the establishment of institutions that share information about borrowers. In contrast, the share of foreign-owned banks, the share of state-owned banks, and banking sector competition have no influence on credit maturity.