STRUCTURAL REFORMS AS GENERATORS OF FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION PROCESS IN NEW EU MEMBER STATES

The processes of financial intermediation had an important role in the transformation of CEE countries into a market economy. Government interventions in mobilizing and allocating financial resources are recognized as an efficient and fast way for developing financial systems. Policy makers have the highest responsibility since they need to ensure not only basic legislative and institutional frameworks, but also need to design and implement adequate structural reforms. All this should be accompanied by an incentive institutional framework. Institutional changes can be regarded as a process that leads to the growth of institutions and their qualitative development. In the beginning of the transition process, economies and institutions were largely determined by the tradition and heritage with the development of institutions reaching different levels of progress. The development of financial markets and institutional investors, as alternatives of classical and prevailing bank financing in CEE countries, have largely been driven by structural reforms, of which the most important are:privatization and pension reform and the introduction of the pension system funded savings, a government bond issue in the domestic market, strengthening supervisory structures and tax reform. The aim of this paper is to point out to the importance of planning and implementing structural reforms which contribute to the development of the financial sector and the progress of the CEE countries.