Subordinated financialisation and banking consolidation in post-socialist Croatia

The article examines how financialisation has unfolded in Croatia through the transformation of its banking sector after socialism. Following the collapse of Yugoslavia, Western European banks, particularly from Austria and Italy, entered Croatia by acquiring local banks and restructuring them into subsidiaries of transnational corporate networks. This process subordinated local financial autonomy to global capital flows, profoundly reshaping banking geographies and economic logics. The article traces how different owners embedded distinct financial rationalities, yet collectively displaced subnationally anchored finance in favour of profit-driven governance aligned with international markets. Bringing together literature on variegated and subordinate financialisation, the article situates Croatia’s experience within broader European hierarchies, highlighting how financialisation operates unevenly across space and historical context. Drawing on legal-historical analysis and ownership data, it argues that banks are not just vehicles of financialisation but also its objects. Ultimately, the Croatian case shows how post-socialist finance has become a crucial site for theorising the financialisation of finance itself, raising questions about the socioeconomic consequences of the erosion of territorially embedded financial institutions.