Vienna initiative participants discuss coordination of policies affecting emerging Europe

Public sector officials from within the European Bank Coordination "Vienna" Initiative met in Vienna on Monday with the aim to enhance the coordination of national policies affecting the economies of emerging Europe, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced late on Monday.

The meeting was attended by supervisors, central banks and fiscal authorities from host and home countries of major cross-border banks, as well as officials from EU institutions (the European Commission, the EBA, the ESRB) and International Financial Institutions (IMF, EBRD, EIB, and the World Bank Group). The European Central Bank participated as observer.

The meeting was aimed at exchanging views on how to better co-ordinate national policies in order to avoid adverse cross-border effects of the ongoing bank deleveraging in advanced Europe and to support transition toward a more sustainable banking model in emerging Europe, the EBRD said.

The European Bank Coordination Initiative launched in early 2009, helped to preserve financial stability in the Central-East European region at the height of the global financial crisis. Cross-border banking groups maintained their exposures in Central-East Europe in the aftermath of the global financial crisis and recapitalized their subsidiaries under programmes supported by the IMF and the EU with positive spillovers to other countries in the region.