This research analyzes the main determinants of the net interest margin of banks operating in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in the period from 1999 to 2010. The results reveal several main drivers of net interest margins in the CEE. Prior to 2008 the net interest margins declined primarily due to strong capital inflows and stable macroeconomic environment. In the crisis period, significant rise in government debt accompanied by the increase in macroeconomic risks and abating capital inflows were pushing margins up while other factors such as low credit demand, higher capitalization and significantly increased share of non-performing loans pressured banks' margins down. The results also confirm the important contribution of higher efficiency to lowering banks' margins.

This paper analyses the determinants of the changes in sovereign bond

This paper identifies and describes some of the main channels through which fiscal policy is linked to financial stability. For that purpose, several features of public debt related to financial stability are explored, such as public debt management and its sustainability, government’s funding costs and their impact on costs of funding for private sector, financial institutions’ exposures to the government etc. The part related to the tax policy elaborates on its countercyclical capacity, the role of automatic stabilizers, tax incentives that encourage or discourage certain type of financing, and impact of tax reliefs on systemic risks, particularly those targeted at the real estate. Fiscal policy role during the periods of strong capital inflows is also described from the financial stability point of view, which is followed by the overview of fiscal and quasi-fiscal costs of financial instability. Specific problem of different time horizon of economic policymakers’, which is in the case of fiscal policy usually related to election cycles and thus negatively affects its countercyclical capacity, is also explored. Given the relevance of the identified channels for financial stability, it can be expected that macroprudential capacity of fiscal policy will gain much more attention in the future research and policy work.

This paper considers financial stability through the processes of accumulation and materialisation of systemic risks. To this end, the method of principal component analysis on the example of Croatia has been used to construct two composite indicators – a systemic risk accumulation index and an index reflecting the consequences of systemic risk materialisation. In the construction of the indices, the features and risks specific to small open economies were considered. Such an approach to systemic risk analysis facilitates the monitoring and understanding of the degree of financial stability and communication of macroprudential policy makers with the public.

* The author would like to thank two anonymous referees for useful comments and suggestions. This work has been partially supported by Croatian Science Foundation under the projectSTatistical Modelling for REspoNse to Crisis and Economic GrowTH in WeStern BalkanCountries-STRENGTHS (project no. 9402). The preliminary version of this paper has been published as the CNB Working Paper: Dumicic, M. 2017. Effectiveness of Macroprudential Policies in Central and Eastern European Countries, CNB Working Papers W-48, March.