Polish banks on the road to recovery

An American economist, whose writings concentrate on the economic reform in Poland, presents an assessment of the country's banking sector in late 1996. Tracing the banks' road to recovery through the partly reformed socialist economy of the 1980s, the author emphasizes the subsequent developments in the 1990s. He discusses the evolution of commercial banking, detailing the consequences of recapitalization and privatization as well as of loan consolidation and competition from foreign banks, the latter viewed as potentially beneficial to the country's economy.