Every firefighter knows that when a building is burning, as much attention must be paid to preventing the flames from spreading as to tackling the source of the blaze.
That was the thinking in early 2009 when international financial institutions pumped billions into central and eastern Europe in stimulus and financial support. In return, the western European banks that control large chunks of emerging Europe’s banking system pledged not to pull capital from their regional subsidiaries, in a co-ordinated effort known as the Vienna Initiative. In the end, a systemic financial crisis in the region was avoided.
Now, as the eurozone fights to preserve its common currency, the risk is greater than ever that sparks from the euro crisis could burn the banking systems of its eastern European neighbours.