Measuring and explaining the efficiencies of the United Arab Emirates banking system

Using newly collected data from a survey distributed to all banks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this article measures economic efficiency in the banking industry, namely allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. Employing a nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach, the study estimates the efficiency for a cross section of the UAE banks in 2004. The results indicate that the dominant source of inefficiency in the UAE banking is stemming from allocative inefficiency rather than technical inefficiency. Furthermore, the main source of the relatively small size, technical inefficiency in the UAE banking industry is not the scale inefficiency but rather pure technical inefficiency. The results further indicate that the UAE banks are able to use their input resources more efficiently when they have more branches, and that newer banks are performing better than older banks on average. Moreover, the results also show that short experiences of employees affect efficiencies negatively and government ownership tends to reduce efficiency (as the government shares increase in the bank, the efficiency scores get lower). Finally, the most interesting results have to do with finding higher average efficiencies in banks that employ more women, more managers and less national citizens of the UAE.     

Applying three-stage DEA on the operational performance of foreign banks in Taiwan

This study applies 3-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) model on a sample of 29 foreign commercial banks in Taiwan in order to measure their overall operational efficiencies. Exploring adjustments on environmental and statistical noise effects incorporated in the pure performance evaluation for input slacks to achieve true managerial efficiency. Through our research, using a three-stage DEA approach, efficiency scores can function as a more specific and precise set of criteria for true managerial efficiency. Our empirical results demonstrated that the operational efficiency values after being adjusted for external environmental factors and statistical noise tend to be higher than the non-adjusted values. Our findings can help the banking management avoid resource misallocations, enhance banking efficiency and improve banking competitiveness.     

Australian Banking Efficiency and Its Relation to Stock Returns

We used Data Envelopment Analysis to evaluate cost efficiency of Australian banks in producing banking services and profit between 1995 and 2002. Empirical results indicate the major banks have improved their efficiency in producing banking services and profit, while the regional banks have experienced little change in the efficiency of producing banking services, and a decline in the efficiency of producing profit. An attempt is made to relate the changes in efficiency to stock returns. Results indicate that for our sample, changes in firm efficiency are reflected in stock returns.     

Has regulatory reform had any impact on bank efficiency in Indonesia? A two-stage analysis

More than a decade following the severe economic crisis 1997, Indonesia has undergone major regulatory changes in its banking industry. This article examines the impact of these regulatory changes on the relative technical efficiency (TE) of the Indonesian banking industry employing data envelopment analysis (DEA) and censored Tobit regression model. Additionally, the bootstrap approach of Simar and Wilson is employed to provide statistical properties to the DEA efficiency score. The findings show that the industry on average is inefficient over the period of analysis. Also, state-owned and foreign-owned banks are found to be more efficient than any other group of banks. Finally, the impact of regulatory reforms is generally positive and statistically significant.     

Financial liberalization and bank efficiency: a comparative analysis of India and Pakistan

This paper provides a comparative analysis of the evolution of the technical efficiency of commercial banks in India and Pakistan during 1988–1998, a period characterized by far-reaching changes in the banking industry brought about by financial liberalization. Data Envelopment Analysis is applied to two alternative input–output specifications to measure technical efficiency, and to decompose technical efficiency into its two components, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency. The consistency of the estimated efficiency scores are checked by examining their relationship with three traditional non-frontier measures of bank performance. In addition, the relationship between bank size and technical efficiency is examined. It is found that the overall technical efficiency of the banking industry of both countries improved gradually over the years, especially after 1995. Unlike public sector banks in India, public sector banks in Pakistan witnessed improvement in scale efficiency only. It is also found that banks are relatively more efficient in generating earning assets than in generating income. This is attributed to the presence of high non-performing loans. In addition, it is found that the gap between the pure technical efficiency of different size groups has declined over the years.     

EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF THE TURKISH BANKING SECTOR IN PRECRISIS AND CRISIS PERIOD: A DEA APPROACH

Structural weaknesses and recent crises increased the fragility of the Turkish banking system. Consequently, 25% of the domestic commercial banks were taken by SDIF between 1997 and 2001. This study assesses the technical efficiency of nonpublic commercial banks between 1990 and 2001 following the DEA model. The study reports a declining trend in the number of efficient banks and the mean efficiency of bank subgroups. It analyzes sensitivity to the output variables and depicts consistency between the model proposals and supervisory agent decisions. Thus the DEA model can be a tool to detect and improve the sources of inefficiency by bank management and supervisory agents. (JEL G15, G21, G28)     

Retail‐bank efficiency: Nonstandard goals and environmental determinants

This paper analyzes technical and scale efficiency of Austrian savings and cooperative banks. Non‐profit objectives are also considered with respect to input–output choice, which contributes to adequate performance measurements for alternative banks. Efficiency score estimates obtained via Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) reveal considerable potential for improvement in terms of intermediation efficiency. Several environmental determinants prove significant, but the cumulative predictive content of exogenous factors is rather modest. Bank efficiency improves in both underdeveloped and prosperous markets, while increased rival size and distance appear to be detriments to efficiency. A concluding discussion of confounding factors reveals the managerial, stakeholder, and policy implications of the results.     

Does bank efficiency matter? Market value relevance of bank efficiency in Australia

The stochastic frontier analysis is employed to investigate efficiency of publicly listed Australian banks over the period 1985 to 2008. The results suggest that technical, cost and profit efficiency of Australian banks have improved over time. Large banks have attained a higher level of cost efficiency but a lower level of technical efficiency compared to small banks. No substantial difference between the two groups is found in terms of profit efficiency. A panel regression of bank stock return on bank efficiency suggests that an improvement in technical, cost or profit efficiency contributes to the market value of a bank. Thus, the shareholder wealth maximization goal is aligned with the goal of maximizing bank efficiency in the Australian context.     

Regional bank efficiency and its effect on regional growth in “normal” and “bad” times

The financial crisis affected regions in Europe in a different magnitude. This is why we examine whether regions which incorporate banks with a higher intermediation quality grow faster in “normal” times and are more resilient in “bad” ones. For this purpose, we measure the intermediation quality of a bank by estimating its profit and cost efficiency while taking the changing banking environment after the financial crisis into account. Next, we aggregate the efficiencies of all banks within a NUTS 2 region to obtain a regional proxy for financial quality in twelve European countries. Our results show that relatively more profit efficient banks foster growth in their region. The link between financial quality and growth is valid in “normal” and in “bad” times. These results provide evidence to the importance of swiftly restoring bank profitability in euro area crisis countries through addressing high non-performing loans ratios and decisive actions on bank recapitalization.     

How efficient is the banking system of Asia’s next economic dragon? Evidence from rolling DEA windows

Vietnam is now widely regarded as a rising economic star and the next economic dragon of Asia. Its banking system has played a key role in this stellar economic performance. Since 1990, Vietnam’s banking system has undergone significant changes which saw its composition transformed from being state banks only to now being both state as well as private banks, and has performed generally well in terms of growth, profitability and stability. But is it efficient? We conduct a dynamic analysis of the level and trend of the cost and profit efficiency of the Vietnamese banking sector over the period 1995 to 2011 taking into account the Asian and Global Financial crises. We use the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Windows Analysis approach and adjust for bank size in calculating the average efficiency score of the banking system. Our empirical findings show that the cost and profit efficiency of the Vietnamese banking system averaged around 0.90 and 0.75, respectively, with the state banks being more efficient than the private banks and with efficiency experiencing an upward trend over the analysis period. Moreover, we find that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) did not significantly affect the efficiency of the whole Vietnamese banking system.     

Profit strategy of Greek banks: cross-subsidization and diversification versus complementarity

This study analyses the profit strategy employed by banks in Greece using dynamic panel data techniques and a data set which includes proprietary supervisory data covering the whole Greek commercial banking system from 2004 to 2011. We provide evidence that banks use interest- and non-interest income (non-II) as substitutes rather than complements, with non-II representing an indirect competition instrument by the more efficient banks used in place of direct competition with their peers through prices on loans and deposits. This behaviour is explained by further decomposing the non-II into the relatively stable fees component and the volatile trading income. Moreover, we provide evidence that the net-interest income is primarily affected by the banks’ market power and their operating costs, while more efficient banks exploit their core deposit base to lever their non-II. Finally, macroeconomic developments affect both income components, which are found to be procyclical with respect to economic activity. In particular, the two income components are affected differently from inflation implying that non-II provides a natural hedge against adverse effects from deflation on interest income.     

The Efficiency of China's Banking Industry and the Determinants

The recent global financial crisis highlights the importance of a sound financial sector for economic development. This paper evaluates the economic efficiency of China's banking industry and investigates the determinants of this efficiency. Our analysis shows that the average economic efficiency of joint-stock commercial banks is highest, followed by the ‘Big Four’ state-owned commercial banks and city commercial banks. The economic inefficiency of these banks during the past 15 years was mainly caused by technical inefficiency, and this technical inefficiency was mainly caused by scale inefficiency. Using the scores of efficiency as dependent variables, the paper also comprehensively studies the impact of (1) the characteristics of individual banks, (2) the characteristics of the whole banking industry and (3) macroeconomic factors on banking efficiency. The results suggest a number of factors that banks can work on to improve efficiency and lend support to deepening reforms in the Chinese banking industry, including regulatory reforms that require capital adequacy in a more strict way, reforms that introduce more competition and, more broadly, reforms that aim at establishing institutions that can truly commercialize Chinese banks. Last but not least, the efficiency of banking depends on healthy growth of the overall economy.     

税制结构与商业银行信贷行为

为了考察税收对银行行为的影响,我们假设商业银行以利润最大化为其经营目标,在现行利率管制条件下,商业银行的选择变量就是其存贷款量.研究结果表明,营业税的开征会影响商业银行最优贷款发放量,对银行信贷行为具有扭曲作用;而所得税对最优存贷款量没有影响,因此,与营业税相比,所得税具有中性税收的优点.     

Bias and precision in the DEA two-stage method

In Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the two-stage method is a popular procedure for accounting for exogenous influences on efficiency. With the conventional two-stage method, a DEA is first conducted using only traditional (endogenous) inputs and outputs. Then, the first-stage DEA scores are regressed on the environmental/contextual (exogenous) inputs of interest. The regression outcomes are used to identify exogenous inputs that influence the first-stage DEA scores to a statistically significant degree, and to adjust DEA scores to account for these influences. Herein, it is demonstrated empirically that the conventional method exhibits substantial bias and low precision, with the degree of bias and precision affected by input variance and correlation. A reverse two-stage procedure that yields estimates without the bias and precision problems that compromise the validity of the conventional method's estimates is suggested.     

商业银行效率、风险与技术进步——基于18家国际大银行的实证分析

本文运用非参数DEA方法对2006～2008年18家国际大银行的效率变化情况进行了实证研究。在选取投入产出指标上,与传统方法不同,本文考虑风险投入,利用利润法选取指标。通过运用两种DEA模型,分别对效率进行静态与动态分析,探讨引起国内外银行效率变动的原因,并且对技术退步现象首次作出可能的解释。本文主要结论为,不论从国际银行业,还是中国银行业来看,全要素生产率的减少主要是由技术退步引起的。而技术变动的原因在于风险的变动。     

The impact of earnings management on the performance of ASEAN banks

Southeast Asian financial liberalization policies have enthused both performance evaluation (a pro) and earnings management (a con). Using a sample of ASEAN commercial banks for the period 2007–2014, this study decomposes their banking performance into managerial and profitability efficiencies. An efficiency analysis reveals that Singaporean banks obtained the highest overall and profitability efficiencies, while Bruneian banks had the lowest rates of banking performance. In the stage of managerial efficiency, the most inefficient banks are those of the Philippines, whereas the greatest level is related to Malaysian banks. A frontier projection analysis suggests that Singaporean banks and Malaysian banks are generally more efficient in managing their expenditures and long-term assets in generating income in the long run. With respect to the con, a regression analysis indicates that loan loss provisions are negatively related to banking performance. Overall, it is advisable that policy makers with oversight function should promote performance evaluation from a multidimensional perspective, and keep an eye on estimates of loan loss provisions at banks over years because increases/decreases in loan loss provisions mean decreases/increases in net income or return on assets.     

X-Efficiency and Productivity Change in Australian Banking

This paper investigates X -efficiency and productivity change in Australian banking between 1995 and 1999 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist productivity indexes. It differs from earlier studies by examining efficiency by bank type, and finds that regional banks are less efficient than other bank types. The study concludes that diseconomies of scale set in very early and hence are not a sufficient basis on which to allow mergers between large banks to proceed. Total factor productivity in the banking sector was found to have increased by an average annual 7.6 per cent between 1995 and 1999. All of the productivity increase was due to technological advance shifting out the frontier. The banking sector's performance was less efficient relative to the frontier in 1999 than it had been in 1995.     

Environmental determinants of banking efficiency in Austria

The great majority of Austrian banks operate on a regional or local basis and only a few banks provide their services on a national or even international scale. Obviously, the market environments regional or local banks face are different from that of nationwide operating banks. Casual evidence suggests that local markets condition is a very important external determinant of banking efficiency. Thus, not controlling for market conditions may substantially bias the measurement of managerial efficiency particularly of locally operating banks. In this paper we assess the internal technical efficiency (or X-efficiency) of the Austrian banking sector with the focus on environmental and non-controllable factors critical to banking markets. Analytically, we apply a multiple-stage approach based on a slacks-based DEA model (SBM) and a censored regression model, respectively. In order to cope with the inherent dependency problem of DEA-based efficiency analysis when incorporated into regression analysis we apply a Bootstrap estimator. In so doing we attempt to overcome the dependency problem which plagues the power of standard regression analysis based on DEA processed data. The empirical analysis is based on an unbalanced panel of data covering more than 800 Austrian banks ranging over 1995–2002.

Bank efficiency in South‐Eastern Europe

This study examines the cost and profit efficiency of banking sectors in six transition countries of South‐Eastern Europe over the period 1998–2008. Using a stochastic frontier approach, our analysis reveals that the average cost efficiency of South‐Eastern European banks is 68.59 percent, and the average profit efficiency is 53.87 percent. Regressions on the determinants of bank efficiency show that foreign banks are characterized by higher profit efficiency but lower cost efficiency, and government‐owned banks are associated with lower profit efficiency than domestic private banks. However, the efficiency gap between foreign‐, domestic private‐ and government‐owned banks narrows over time. We also find that the market power of a bank has a positive association with both cost and profit efficiency. Institutional development, proxied by progress in banking regulatory reforms, privatization and enterprise corporate governance restructuring, also has a positive impact on bank efficiency.     

Evolution of banking efficiency within an unstable macroeconomic environment: the case of Turkish commercial banks

This paper analyses the efficiency performance of the Turkish banking sector between 1988 and 1999, a period characterized by increasing macroeconomic instability. The technical and scale efficiencies of Turkish commercial banks are measured with the use of nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis. The empirical results suggest that over the sample period both pure technical and scale efficiency measures show a great variation and the sector did not achieve sustained efficiency gains. It is also reported that the sector suffers mainly from scale inefficiency and scale inefficiency, in turn, is due to decreasing returns to scale. There are also reported differences in the efficiency performance of commercial banks with different ownership status. In addition, the relationships between profitability, asset quality, size and the two definitions of efficiency are considered. Efficient banks are more profitable, and pure technical efficiency and scale inefficiency are positively related to size. The trend in the performance levels over the period suggests that macroeconomic conditions had a profound influence on the efficiency measures.