The Evaluation of EU Banking Network Regionalization in the Global Context During Post-Crisis Period

Cross-border interbank lending has fallen sharply since 2007–2008 crisis encouraging the debate about regionalization in global banking sector, i.e., increased connectedness at a regional level. The purpose of this Master‘s Thesis is to evaluate EU banking network regionalization in the global context during post-crisis period. Previous empirical literature revealed that banking networks have been analyzed extensively either prior or post-crisis, but the literature on regionalization is scarce, especially with regard to banking sector. Hence, in this research EU banking network regionalization in the global context during post-crisis period is analyzed using network analysis methodology covering cross-border banking claim flows data of 37 countries in 2011 and 2015. Results reveal that the level of connectedness within global banking network decreased and its structure changed during post-crisis period. The level of EU banking network regionalization in the global context did not increase, but the level of regionalization within EU increased during post-crisis period. This research adds to previous literature through application of network analysis to global banking sector and covering of the most recent data.