Authors

Discussion

This paper argues that UK banks were important for the development of East-West trade and financial relations during the Cold War through actively developing business ties with Central and Eastern European countries (CEE). It also reveals that the UK government saw these relationships as a means to further its foreign policy goals towards the region and strengthen East-West European political relations through increased trade and financial links, which it sought to encourage through the use of export credit guarantees. Through research carried out in the archives of Barclays, Lloyds, Midland and National Westminster banks, this paper demonstrates the extent of UK government export credit use in CEE and asserts that these credits had a tangible effect on UK bank lending and relations with CEE countries by encouraging increased lending to and business with CEE countries even when doing so ran counter to UK banks’ own commercial imperatives. It also demonstrates how the use of these credits influenced the UK government’s and UK banks’ responses to the crisis, in particular their approach to rescheduling.