Banking Sector - Introductory Information
The following features characterize the financial sector, especially its banking segment in the Czech Republic:
- Banks dominate the financial sector in the Czech Republic
- From the view of the ownership structure the banking sector in the Czech Republic is highly internationalised
- The concentration rate of the sector is very high and dominated by big banks
- In spite of the high concentration rate a considerable intensity of competition among banks remains; the competitive environment, however, differs from one banking market segment to another
- Medium-size banks continue to strengthen their activities and represent one of the driving forces aiming at a constant inflow of market innovations ; thus they embody a real competition to big-size banks in the selected banking market segments
- Banks are the leaders almost in all financial groups, operating in the Czech Republic; thus we can speak of the financial market, where the financial conglomerates controlled by banks are the key players
- Financial sector in the Czech Republic is supervised and regulated by the Czech National Bank (ČNB); in the ČNB has been - since April 2006 - concentrated the agenda of the supervision over the financial market and over all its sub-segments, i.e. not only supervision of banks, but also of
- Credit unions
- Insurance companies
- Pension funds
- Investment companies, investment and mutual funds
- Leasing companies etc.
- The banks have been focusing their attention on the development of retail banking (household lending – both consumer and home credit) in the recent years; retail lending is a fairly dynamic segment of the banking market.
*******