This chapter studies the flow of funds and financial resilience of the banking industry in the Balkans in the face of the global financial crisis and the second
great depression. After presenting the stylized facts in terms of standard variables like deposit potential, credit activity, capital adequacy, NPLs and basic profitability indicators in the last couple of years immediately preceding and following the beginning of the crisis, we go on to review the theoretical paradigms and empirical regularities found in (international) banking crises
literature, only to make preliminary evaluation of robustness of the narrow banking model in the Balkans and effectiveness of deposit insurance schemes for the health of banking sectors and overall growth financing, and lastly but not least, in order to establish the likelihood, feasible channels and type of potentially
systemic banking crisis occurrence after all in otherwise fairly narrowly organised banking industry of the region
