Emerging Europe

Azeri default reminds investors that implicit guarantees aren’t worth the paper they’re not written on.

European authorities deserve credit for pushing through reform of Slovenia’s banking sector.

Economic recovery encourages borrowers; fiscal consolidation revives eurozone entry talk.

Czech group Home Credit has ridden the consumer finance roller coaster in Russia over the last decade. Now it’s betting big on Asia and even taking on China’s online retail giants.

The central bank’s plan to encourage lenders to make consumer-friendly home loans doesn’t appear to be an attack on their profits. Yet.

Confidence in the oil producer is wavering as a bank crisis unfolds.

Ukraine’s Gontareva should be lauded for her efforts to clean up Ukraine’s rotten banking system.

Moldova is troubled even by the standards of eastern Europe, but at the central bank Sergiu Cioclea, a former BNP Paribas corporate financier, is trying to bring order to his home country’s chaotic banking sector.

Another election cycle, another chance for a bit of bank-bashing. This time the venue is the Czech Republic, where prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka is trying to drum up support for his Social Democrat Party (SDP) before parliamentary elections in October by promising to tax the country’s banks.

Its HQ has to leave London – why not go to Warsaw?

Leading Russian investment bank adds Israel to coverage list; India next target after Essar sell-side mandate wins admirers.

Euromoney’s survey experts continue to downgrade the borrower, disagreeing with the president’s claims there is no justification for it.

That is, if you are a foreign investor.

Since 1996, Turkey’s leading local investment bank has not only held its own against international competitors but maintained a dizzying pace of expansion. Now chairman and founder, Mahmut Unlu, is looking to transform the country’s private banking market.

Political and market turmoil in Turkey has once again turned the spotlight on its banks’ dependence on external financing. Are foreign investors really fickle or are sector fundamentals strong enough to withstand repeated turbulence?

They have out-lasted their local competitors and seen off the bulge bracket banks. Now a cohort of hardy regional investment banks across emerging Europe are preparing for a new wave of M&A and capital markets activity.

When Austria’s Hypo Alpe Adria collapsed after the financial crisis, it left a network of small Balkan banks – private equity firm Advent International has taken up the challenge of turning them into a profitable franchise, rebranded, root-and-branch reformed and under new management. CEO Ulrich Kissing is open-eyed about the challenges Addiko Bank faces.

Leaping into tier three, the country is on course to regain the rating it lost four years ago.

It has come a long way since 2014, but policymakers must keep going.

The Czech currency came under sustained upward pressure in the middle of January, as investors piled in on bets that faster inflation would spur the central bank to abandon a cap that has kept a lid on the koruna for the past three years.

Belgian group wins bidding for NBG subsidiary; further consolidation seen likely in crowded market.

International investors regain appetite for Russian stocks; Sovcomflot privatization on the table again.

A challenging inflation outlook, sluggish economic activity and the steep slide in the value of the lira look set to force the Turkish central bank to oppose the wishes of its president and hike interest rates.

International banks recently put up an unsecured loan for a Russian borrower with a parent on the US sanctions list. Has the loan market for unsanctioned investment-grade Russian borrowers just got broader, deeper and potentially cheaper?

Perhaps size is an advantage for an innovation centre – small size, that is. It means you are nimble. So says Lithuania.

Georgia’s overall ECR score has been rising steadily throughout 2016. It improved by more than one point in the third quarter of the year, scoring 44.97, up from 43.88 in the previous quarter.

Deutsche joins list of sellers; public-sector buyers in driving seat.

Of all the cities lining up to poach London’s business post-Brexit, Vilnius might seem the most unlikely. Yet the Lithuanian capital has much to offer financial firms, from liveability and local talent to cutting-edge fintech regulation. Euromoney visits a small city with big ambitions.

Sale of Poland’s Allegro sets regional record; local currency liquidity adds comfort for global buyers.

Eurobonds back after three-month post-coup shutdown; October supply tops $3.5 billion.