TRANSACTIONAL STRUCTURES OF BANK PRIVATIZATIONS IN CENTRAL-EUROPE ANDRUSSIA

In pursuing bank privatization, governments in Central Europe and Russ ia faced a common set of policy issues, including how to break up the monobank system, deal with troubled loans, transfer equity to the priv ate sector, and attract capital to the banks. For each bank undergoing privatization, the government's approach to such issues determines it s transactional structure. We develop this conceptual framework and as sess the findings from three studies of major commercial banks undergo ing privatization. The varied transactional structures used in these p rivatizations appear to have had significant effects on each bank's mi crostructure and to influence bank strategy and post-privatization per formance. J. Comp. Econom., August 1997, 25(1), pp. 5-30. The William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109; and University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 and The William Davidson Institute at the Unive rsity of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. (C) 1997 Academic Press.