How the Polish banking sector has survived the global crisis

Banks in Poland have survived global financial crisis which began in 2008, much better than banks in many other countries in Western and Central Europe. The author lists and analyzes factors which contributed to maintain liquidity and financial stability of the banking sector. The most important include inter alia: strong macroeconomic bases of economy before the crisis, relatively less reliance on foreign capital and lower dependence on external trade, a lower level of households debt, a relatively high capitalization of banks and appropriate policy intervention. As the author suggests, maintaining stability of this sector will require new regulatory decisions.