The analysis in this book reflects various aspects of financial sector transformation in selected Central European countries that are expected to join the EU in 2004. The authors are Central European financial experts who provide, among other things, a detailed overview of the following main topics: Banking Regulation and Supervision Concentration and Efficiency of the Banking Sectors Financial (banking) crises in selected Central European countries and Monetary and Exchange Rate Development. The results of the research done by these authors reflect an interesting fact: that there exist important differences in the financial sector development even in the relatively homogeneous group of selected Central European countries, namely the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. JAN FRAIT Member of the Board of Governors of the Czech National Bank, Prague, Czech Republic LUBOS KOMREK Advisor to a Czech National Bank Board member in Prague, Czech Republic LUMR KULHNEK Associate Professor of Economics at the Silesian University, School of Business Administration, Karvine, Czech Republic ROMAN MATOUSEK Senior Lecturer in Financial Economics at the Business School of London Metropolitan University MARTIN MELECKY Ph.D. student at the University of New South Wales, Australia DANIEL STAVREK Ph.D. student and an Assistant Professor at Silesian University, School of Business Administration, Karvine, Czech Republic