The European Central Bank kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at a record low of 1.0 percent on Thursday, as expected by economists.

Investors are braced for signs on Thursday that the European Central Bank will soon start weaning banks off cheap and abundant liquidity given that expiry dates are approaching for the central bank's crisis measures.

The European Union's former communist members spooked the West earlier this year, when some investors and analysts believed their crumbling economies could send shockwaves through the system and even sink the EU. The International Monetary Fund and the EU have pumped billions of euros in Central and Eastern European countries to alleviate the pain of the crisis, but their economies are still suffering. Click ahead to see what they expect for this year.

Erste Bank said the worst of the crisis may now be over for banks in emerging Europe, after it beat third-quarter earnings forecasts and launched a 1.65 billion euro ($2.4 billion) cash call.

The European Central Bank will start rolling back its liquidity lifeline to banks next year and very long-term operations could be among the first to go, ECB's Axel Weber said.

Norway's central bank ordered the first interest rate increase in Europe since the global financial crisis bit hard a year ago and signaled more tightening to come as the economy recovers from a mild downturn.

ECB Governing Council member Christian Noyer warned that banks are taking the same risks that led to the financial crisis.

It is unlikely that the euro zone would fall back into recession soon after exiting it, European Central Bank Governing Council member Axel Weber said on Thursday.

ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet discussed exchange rates with euro zone finance ministers on Monday but said nothing new on a dollar slide that some fear could hurt Europe's economic recovery.

America and China have a problem. A very big multi-trillion dollar problem that shows no sign of going away whatever the financial crisis throws at it.

Australia's rate hike may not signal a stampede to raise rates. But smaller central banks could be tempted to tighten sooner rather than later.

On the last day of Sept. 2008, one of the wildest, scariest months in U.S. financial history, the Wall Street-Washington roller-coaster starts climbing again.

The influence of the world's central bankers has never been more prominent than it has throughout the global economic crisis, as these captains of monetary policy are given the daunting task of rescuing national economies from total collapse. With varying degrees of monetary policies and domestic concerns, which central bankers have most effectively combated economic issues and staved off disaster? Which ones should have done things differently?  To answer this, Global Finance Magazine has released their "Central Banker Report Cards 2009" list, which takes a look at 31 of the most prominent central bankers and assigns a them a grade based upon their performance thus far in 2009, including the challenges faced and how effectively they performed.

Twenty-two large banks in Europe may have accumulated credit losses of close to $580 billion for this year and next, the New York Times reports.

Sunrise: Congressional leaders from both parties emerge from intense talks to present a $700 billion financial rescue plan agreement on Sunday.