Abstract:

As it is the case the global financial crisis has affected some countries more than others and it also affected some banks more than others as well. Accordingly global crisis was more destructive in some countries where many banks went bankcrupt or survived wth the support from their states. The global financial crisis that is started in the USA and later spreaded in Europe,  alongside damaging the EU countries, hurted other countries those were economically and/or financially integrated with EU countries.  Banks are becoming sensitive to crisis due to the risk they carry on their balance sheets. The effects of crisis are strengthened by two dimensions of risk namely volatility and sensitivity.  Volatility is exegenous for banks. Thus banks get affected by crisis due to their sensitivity to risk which is under their control. In line with their risk apetite banks change the structures of their balance sheets that eventually determine their sensitivity to risk. In this work, the balance sheet structures of 213 banks (commercial, savings and cooperative) in 12 Balkan countries were examined and compared for the period of 2006-2012. Within this framework it has been aimed to analyse the trends in credit risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk and operational risk. Banks were  handled from different perspectives such as being EU mamber or not, their sizes, and their geographical regions

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