Abstract:

The European integration process is believed to provide advantages for the development of the economic environment of the candidate countries. The backbone of any modern economy is represented by the financial system, in the case of the new EU member states the banking sector being the main channel through which the economy is financed. In this context, the aim of our paper is to investigate if the ascension process to full EU membership of the countries from the 2007 extension wave, namely Bulgaria and Romania, and the preparations for the adoption of the European single currency have determined an increase of the overall efficiency of the banking sector. In order to achieve our aim, we have used a non-parametric approach based on the Data Envelopment Analysis, employing one of the most comprehensive samples of banks. The results underline an improvement of the overall efficiency of the banks operating in these countries during the analysed period of 2003-2010.