Driven by the strong tourism sector and numerous international direct investments, the Montenegrin economy grew considerably in recent years, but then slowed down dramatically as the financial crisis spread. At the same time, the then booming real estate sector lost momentum and real estate prices collapsed. Against this background, the Montenegrin banking sector has been faced with a massive liquidity bottleneck already since the beginning of the year 2008. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the difficult situation was further exacerbated by the international financial crisis. However, this development had already been kick-started one year earlier when the Montenegrin central bank first adopted regulative measures concerning the extension of the bank credit portfolios. In the challenging economic boundary conditions of 2008, the leasing market, which had grown steadily during previous years, was also hit. Almost all leasing companies reduced their activities noticeably. At the same time, foreign direct investments began to peter out.