Banking on trust: institutional trust and the geography of financial exclusion in Central and Eastern Europe

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Alexandra Sandu

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: In this paper we investigate what determines access to banking in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The research uses different waves of the OeNB Euro Survey – covering over 91,000 individuals during the period 2012–2020 – and pooled and multilevel logit models to analyse how the interplay of trust in institutions, socio-economic attributes and geographic contexts shapes access to bank accounts, savings deposits and loans across 10 CEE countries. The findings reveal significant disparities in banking inclusion across products: while institutional trust enhances access to current accounts and savings deposits, its impact on loans is weaker. Socio-economic factors and geographical contexts, particularly at the local NUTS3 level, also matter enormously for financial inclusion. National and local economic conditions are key in shaping variations in financial inclusion/exclusion across CEE.

Keywords: banking access; institutional trust; financial inclusion; Central and Eastern Europe; multilevel analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 O16 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2025-07-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg, nep-pay and nep-soc
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Published in Environment and Planning A, 28, July, 2025. ISSN: 0308-518X

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:128413

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