Bne Aris in Berlin
Mon, 29th Jun -- At first the Russian government believed the banking sector would breeze through the crisis if they simply threw enough money at it. By the start of this year and some $23bn later, officials at the Central Bank of Russia started to get worried, fearing there wasn't enough money in the state's coffers to deal with mounting bad debt that could lead to a systemic meltdown. Now, as summer approaches, the attitudes have shifted again. Russia's banking sector is facing a climb to the 13th floor because the lift is broken: it will be a real slog and not everyone will make it, but it is doable if the effort is put in.

Simon Nellis of Citibank
Mon, 29th Jun -- According to Standard & Poor's, "troubled assets" of Russian banks could total $213bn and banks may have to write off as much as 14% of all loans, or $80bn, over the next 2 1/2 years as companies struggle to repay debt, Bloomberg reported.

Nicholas Watson in Prague
Mon, 29th Jun -- On June 16, the Czech central bank published the results of its stress tests on the country's financial institutions, which showed the sector to be pretty resilient. To a greater or lesser degree, that seems to be the case for the other three "Visegrad" countries of Central Europe.

Jan Cienski in Warsaw
Mon, 29th Jun -- Poland's banks are riding out the economic crisis in decent shape, which has prompted the government to turn to the country's largest bank in the hopes of squeezing it for a large dividend payment to repair this year's listing budget.

Mike Collier in Tallinn
Mon, 29th Jun -- There may have been worse times to launch a bank - say, in the wake of bubonic plague - but only just. Yet the fact that the banking sector is currently about as popular with the general public as an outbreak of swine flu isn't putting a dampener on the spirits of Erki Kert, a board member of Estonia's newly-formed LHV Bank.