This book examines whether transplanting banks from outside can solve the problems involved in creating a well-functioning market economy, looking especially at the virtual complete takeover of East German banks by their Western counterparts after unification. Drawing on a wide range of English and German sources, and fieldwork interviews across Germany, it argues that there are no quick fix solutions for the transition to a market. Implications are discussed for East Germany and for other previously centrally planned economies, and for the global implications of foreign ownership in banking.