Publication

This report describes the 1990-1997 transition period in the banking sector in Poland and the conditions inherited from the centralist regime of the command economy. The authors analyze macroeconomic changes and their impact on this sector, describing the policy measures, including privatization and adjustment efforts, that established the sector's legal and institutional base. They focus on the rehabilitation and recapitalization programs introduced to state-owned and private banks and the role that these processes played in restructuring Poland's banking sector. They discuss the second transition and post-restructuring period, which began in 1997, and conclude with lessons from the Polish experience.