Balkan, Hungarian Banks Are East Europe’s Riskiest, Fitch Says

Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian banks are the most vulnerable in eastern Europe to any renewed crisis as the volume of bad loans remains high and sluggish economic growth curtails lending, Fitch Ratings said.

“Banks are not doing so well, specifically in terms of banking asset-quality data, in Romania, to some extent Hungary and to a lesser extent Bulgaria,” Michael Steinbarth, a senior director at Fitch in London, said in an interview. “Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian banking systems also display weaker features because of macroeconomic imbalances.”