Morten Balling is Professor of Finance at the Aarhus School of Business, DenmarkFrank Lierman is Chief Economist at Dexia Bank, BelgiumAndy Mullineux is Professor of Global Finance and Director of the Global Finance Research Group at the Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham

• Introduction Morten Balling 1. Financial sector development as a tool for EU convergence Luigi Passamonti 2. The implications of EU membership on financial systems' stability-oriented economic and financial policies Vahur Kraft 3. Role of central banks in promoting financial stability - and the Hungarian experience Zsigmond Járai 4. Banking sector development and economic growth in trasistion countries Tuuli Koivu 5. Financial sector efficiency: concepts, measurement, theoretical and empirical evidence Hans Christian Mantler, Gerhard Fink and Peter Haiss 6. Financial sector efficiency in the EU accession countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE): the impact of policies, and the road ahead Maxwell C. Watson 7. Challenging the prudential supervisor: liability versus (regulatory) immunity. Lessons from the EU experience for Central and Eastern European countries Michel Tison 8. Reforms enhancing the efficiency of the financial sector and the implications of future EU membership Lelo Liive 9. The effect of foreign bank entry on domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe Peter Zajc 10. The efficiency of foreign and domestic banks in Central and Eastern Europe: evidence on economics of scale and scope Christopher J. Green, Victor Murinde and Ivaylo Nikolov 11. The efficiency of the banking sector in CEE - inequality and convergence to the EU Mariana Tomova, Nikolay Nenovsky and Totka Naneva 12. The Internationalisation of Estonian banks: inward versus outward penetration Mart Sorg, Janek Uiboupin, Urmas Varblane and Vello Vensel 13. An early warning model for currency crisis in Central and Eastern Europe Franz Schardax 14. Institutional Vulnerability indicators for currency crisis in Central and Eastern European countries Dirk Effenberger 15. Implications of the design of monetary policy for financial stability Alicia Garcia-Herrero and Pedro del Rio