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

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Alexandra Sandu
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Andrés Rodríguez-Pose: Cañada Blanch Centre and Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics, London, UK
Alexandra Sandu: School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Environment and Planning A, 2025, vol. 57, issue 7, 921-948

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)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:57:y:2025:i:7:p:921-948

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X251350433

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