Banking efficiency in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: A comparative study

We measure cost and profit efficiencies of banks operating in six GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) using heteroskedastic stochastic frontier (HSF) models. Our results show that measures of cost and profit efficiencies of banks vary widely across the six gulf countries over the same period. We examine whether cost and profit efficiencies of Islamic banks are significantly different from that of conventional banks. After allowing for bank risk, asset quality, environmental influences such as the level of interest rate, and country effect, we find that cost and profit efficiencies of Islamic banks are similar to that of conventional banks. Our results suggest that the country-specific variables have significant impact on cost and profit efficiencies of banks operating in GCC countries. Our findings indicate that cost and profit efficiencies of Islamic banks are more volatile than that of conventional banks.     

The impact of network size on bank branch performance

Despite significant technological innovation in retail banking services delivery, the number of US bank branches has grown steadily over time. Further, more and more of these branches are held by banks with large branch networks. This paper assesses the implications of these developments by examining measures of branch performance and asking how these measure vary across institutions with different branch network sizes. Our findings suggest that banks with mid-sized branch networks may be at a competitive disadvantage in branching activities. We find no systematic relationship between branch network size and overall institutional profitability, perhaps because banking organizations optimize the size of their branch network operations as part of an overall strategy involving both branch-based and non-branch-based activities.     

European Banking Integration: Don’t Put the Cart before the Horse

This paper reviews the progress in European banking integration over the last twenty years, and evaluates the current system of banking supervision and deposit insurance based on ‘home country’ control. The public policy implications to draw from the paper are threefold: First, after a relatively slow start, European banking integration is gaining momentum, in terms of cross‐border flows, market share of foreign banks in several domestic markets, and cross‐border M&As of significant size. If this trend continues, the issue of adequate supervision and safety nets in an integrated European banking market will become even more pressing. Second, although until recently banks have relied mostly on subsidiary structures to go cross‐border, this is changing with the recent creation of the European company statute, which facilitates cross‐border branch banking. A review of the case of the Scandinavian bank, Nordea Bank AB, helps to understand some remaining barriers to integration, and the supervisory issues raised by branch banking. Third, it is argued that the principle of ‘home country’ supervision is unlikely to be adequate in the future for large international banks. Because the closure of an international bank would be likely to have cross‐border spillovers, and because some small European countries might be unable to finance the bail‐out of their very large banks, centralization, or at least Europe‐wide coordination, of the decision to close or bail‐out international banks is needed. This raises the issue of European funding of bail‐out costs, European banking supervision, and European deposit insurance.     

Do foreign ownership and home-host country distance matter? Evidence on the impact of bank market power on liquidity creation in a selected Southeast Asian country

This paper examines the roles of foreign ownership and home-host country distance in the impact of bank market power on bank liquidity creation in a selected Southeast Asian country (Malaysia) over the period 2001−2017. A key finding is that the impact of market power on liquidity creation is either significantly negative or insignificant for domestic banks, but is significantly positive for foreign banks, irrespective of the liquidity creation measures used. This finding points to evidence of “home-field advantage” of domestic banks as the banks possess greater ability to withstand interest margin compression, while competing with foreign banks in liquidity creation market. Moreover, this paper finds that foreign banks originated from countries with cultural, economic and institutional distance to the host country require greater market power to boost their liquidity creation performance, as compared to their domestic counterparts. Further analysis also indicates that the influence of host-home country distance is more evident among small foreign banks which have lower franchise value. Overall, the findings of this paper suggest that although bank competition policies may promote customer welfare, foreign banks should be granted with some degree of market power in the host country to help alleviating the banks’ operational challenges arising from home-host country distance.     

Determinants of domestic and cross-border bank acquisitions in the European Union

This paper analyzes the determinants of bank acquisitions both within and across countries in the EU-25 over the period 1997–2004. Our results suggest poorly managed banks (high cost to income) and larger banks are more likely to be acquired by other banks in the same country. The probability of being a target in a cross-border deal is larger for banks that are quoted in the stock market. Finally, banks operating in more concentrated markets are less likely to be acquired by other banks in the same country but are more likely to be acquired by banks in other EU-25 countries.     

国有商业银行分支机构调整战略及规划探析

我国国有商业银行在分支机构管理上存在着分支机构总量过于庞大、人员过多、布局缺乏地区定位以及管理链条较长等问题,导致的结果就是管理成本高、市场反应速度慢,这将不利于其在日益激烈的同业竞争中获胜.据此,结合我国区域经济发展的特征和金融资源的分布情况,参照国际商业银行分支机构管理的经验,作者提出了国有商业银行分支机构调整战略目标以及"一个重心,三条主线"的战略规划,"一个重心"主要是指以中心城市行为发展重心;"三条主线"包括纵向的组织结构扁平化、横向的网点区域布局调整以及按业务流程对组织架构进行整合.     

Foreign Bank Behavior during Financial Crises

This paper studies whether lending by foreign banks is affected by financial crises. We pair a bank‐level data set of foreign ownership with information on banking crises and examine whether the credit supply of majority foreign‐owned banks that underwent home‐country crises differ systematically from those of other foreign banks. In contrast to the literature, our broad global coverage allows us to exploit variations between foreign banks; this enables us to identify an average treatment effect directly attributable to crises. Our baseline results show that banks exposed to home‐country crises between 2007–08 exhibit changes in lending patterns that are lower by between 13% and 42% than their noncrisis counterparts. This finding is robust to potential alternative explanations, and also holds, though less strongly, for the 1997/98 Asian crisis.     

The Predicament of Bank Creditors in Chinese Bankruptcy and the Way Out

Although Chinese banks are the major creditors for companies in China, their role in bankruptcy is often neglected. Even if this may be justified in the past, as banks did not assume an important role, it is not the case now as banks have become more proactive in the bankruptcy procedure and begin to conduct debt‐for‐equity swaps under the initiative of the government. This article considers the role of Chinese banks in bankruptcy both in and out of formal bankruptcy procedure. It argues that based on the reality of the country, especially its corporate governance structure, bank intervention is feasible for corporate rescues in China. The debt‐for‐equity swap scheme could be the start. Copyright © 2018 INSOL International and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cost frontier efficiency and risk-return analysis in an emerging market

The paper investigated cost efficiencies and its relationship with risk-return behavior of banks in United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). The major findings are that there were 10-25% inefficiencies in these banks under different cost specifications. On the risk-return front, lower liquidity and lower capitalization risks coupled with higher ROE significantly improved the cost efficiencies of the banks. Further, domestic banks were relatively cost efficient than foreign banks. These findings are useful to emerging market participants in their investment decisions, as also the policymakers and bank regulators to monitor inefficient banks in the context of revised Basel capital norms.     

Exporting Liquidity: Branch Banking and Financial Integration

Using exogenous liquidity windfalls from oil and natural gas shale discoveries, we demonstrate that bank branch networks help integrate U.S. lending markets. Banks exposed to shale booms enjoy liquidity inflows, which increase their capacity to originate and hold new loans. Exposed banks increase mortgage lending in nonboom counties, but only where they have branches and only for hard‐to‐securitize mortgages. Our findings suggest that contracting frictions limit the ability of arm's length finance to integrate credit markets fully. Branch networks continue to play an important role in financial integration, despite the development of securitization markets.     

Cost and Profit Efficiency of the Turkish Banking Industry: An Empirical Investigation

By employing a stochastic frontier approach, we examine the effect of bank size, corporate control, and governance, as well as ownership, on the cost (input) and alternative profit (input-output) efficiencies of Turkish banks. We find that the average profit efficiency is 84% for Turkish banks. The oligopolistic nature of the Turkish banking industry has contributed to less than optimal competition in the loan market and deposit markets. Our results indicate that the degree of linkage between cost and profit efficiency is significantly low. This suggests that high profit efficiency does not require greater cost efficiency in Turkey, and that cost in efficient banks can continue to survive in this imperfect market, where profit opportunities are abundant for all types and sizes of banks. Accordingly, our results indicate that the different sizes of banks have capitalized these opportunities equivalently.     

Adoption of digital banking channels in an emerging economy: exploring the role of in-branch efforts

The aim of this qualitative study is to analyse the role of in-branch efforts of banks on migrating customers from branch banking to digital banking in India. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with bank executives representing senior management from public and private sector banks in India. Qualitative content analysis technique was used to analyse the data. Varieties of responses received during interviews were clubbed into four main themes based on data reduction, display, and conclusion-drawing processes. In-branch communication with customers, digital transformation of the branch, customer-centric initiatives, and redefined role of branch staff hold the potential to bridge the customers’ migration to digital banking. The paper suggests that the key identified factor in improving digital banking acceptance in India is the requirement of integrated cultural and organisational changes at the bank’s level to gain the customers’ confidence and trust in digital banking.

     

Incentives in an international bank

Margins in international banking have fallen dramatically during the last years. Therefore, banks face the pressing need to develop more suitable forms of organization and more efficient incentive schemes. In a principal agent framework this paper develops four fundamental rules. The marginal benefits from additional risk taking should be equal to its marginal cost. The top management should set position limits to the local branch managers. Competition across local branches should be used to improve incentives. If the local branch manager can engage in different activities, incentives should be balanced.     

International Comparisons of Banking Efficiency

The banking industry around the globe has been transformed in recent years by unprecedented consolidation and cross‐border activities. However, international consolidation has been considerably less than might have been expected in developed nations—such as long‐term members of the EU—where barriers to entry have been significantly lowered. In contrast, foreign‐owned banks have generally achieved much higher penetration in developing nations. We investigate the extent to which these differences may be related to bank efficiency concerns by reviewing and critiquing over 100 studies that compare bank efficiencies across nations. The studies are in three distinct categories: (1) comparisons of bank efficiencies in different nations based on the use of a common efficient frontier, (2) comparisons of bank efficiencies in different nations using nation‐specific frontiers, and (3) comparisons of efficiencies of foreign‐owned versus domestically owned banks within the same nation using the same nation‐specific frontier. The research—particularly the findings in the third category—is generally consistent with the hypothesis that efficiency differences help to explain the consolidation patterns. The efficiency disadvantages of foreign‐owned banks relative to domestically owned banks tend to outweigh the efficiency advantages in developed nations on average, and this situation is generally reversed in developing nations, with notable exceptions to both findings. We also stress the need for further research in this area.     

Efficiency and risk in commercial banking: empirical evidence from East Asian countries

This paper analyses the effects of off-balance sheet (OBS) activities and various types of risks on the cost and profit efficiencies of banks in seven East Asian countries between 2001 and 2008. Cost and profit efficiency scores are estimated using the data envelopment analysis approach. The results of this analysis are then used to identify the impact of OBS activities and risk exposures on cost and profit efficiencies using a Tobit regression. Bank insolvency risk (as measured by z-scores) is positively related to profit efficiency, while interest sensitivity, size, equity to total assets and OBS exposures all impact on cost efficiency. The analysis of the impact of input and output slacks illustrates that in around 1 in 5 cases banks’ cost efficiency can be improved by adjusting the former variables, whereas in only around 1 in 100 cases a similar outcome is possible for profit efficiency.     

Foreign bank subsidiaries’ risk-taking behavior: Impact of home and host country national culture

This paper examines whether the risk-taking behavior of foreign affiliates of multinational banks is more influenced by the national culture of their parent banks’ home country or the national culture of foreign affiliates’ host country. The study uses a dataset of 292 foreign affiliates (i.e., subsidiaries or branch operations) operating in 66 countries having parent banks in 26 countries for empirical analysis. National culture of both home and host countries is measured with four dimensions—uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity and power distance—of Hofstede's framework of national culture. Findings suggest that the national culture of parent banks’ home country has higher impact on the risk-taking behavior of foreign affiliates of multinational banks than the national culture of their host country. Specifically, foreign affiliates’ risk-taking is higher if parent banks’ home country has low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism and low power distance cultural values. This study extends our understanding that how informal institutions, such as the national culture, influence the financial decisions in multinational banks.     

Branching,scale economies,and banking costs

In this paper, we develop and estimate a model of bank costs based on a theory of the branch cost function. First, we show that convenient branch location is important to banking customers and implies that banks do not necessarily operate branches at minimum average cost. This theoretical result provides a rationale for including branch variables in the bank cost function. Second, we estimate a statistical cost equation derived explicitly from assumptions about the branch cost function and including branch output variables. Our empirical results suggest substantial economies of scale at the branch level, but no economies from expansion by branching. Finally, we show that the resulting cost structure of the banking industry does not imply that a highly concentrated banking structure is necessary for efficiency. Thus, economies of scale would not be expected to force small banks out of the market, even if current restrictions on interstate banking are liberalized.     

The changing structure of local credit markets: Are small businesses special?

In many countries consolidation in the banking industry has reduced the number of small banks and led to significant shifts in market shares; deregulation has fostered entry in local credit markets and the expansion of branch networks, increasing competition in local markets. Small businesses are believed to be more vulnerable to these changes, since they are more dependent on credit from local banks. In this paper we investigate the consequences of consolidation and entry for these borrowers compared with those for large firms. We employ a data set for Italy, which provides information on volumes of loans and bad loans by size of borrower with a detailed geographical partition. We find that mergers are followed by a temporary reduction in outstanding credit to all sizes of borrowers and by an increase in bad loans, most likely due to the reassessment of banks portfolios. Entry has a relatively persistent negative impact on credit supply to small and medium-sized firms. Our results also show that concentration, branch density and the share of branches of small banks affect the volumes of credit and bad loans of small borrowers.     

Efficiency in the Vietnamese banking system: A DEA double bootstrap approach

This study analyses bank efficiency in Vietnam from 1999 to 2009. We use a unique data sample that allows us to capture the development of the Vietnamese banking sector over the last decade. We apply an advanced methodological approach introduced by Simar and Wilson (2007) to examine bank efficiency in Vietnam. An integral part of the analysis is to explore the determinants of bank efficiency. The results indicate that large and very large banks are more efficient than small and medium sized banks with small banks having the lowest efficiency scores in the system. Non-state owned commercial banks are more efficient than state owned commercial banks assuming overall efficiency. We also argue that banks with large branch networks and those that have been in existence for a long time are less efficient than other banks.     

How Does Cross‐Border Activity Affect EU Banking Markets?

Cross‐border activity in the EU is widely viewed as a necessary condition for the implementation of a single banking market and therefore as a positive factor for the enhancement of competition and cost performance in the region. In this paper, we analyse the relevance of this view by investigating whether cross‐border activity really promotes competition and cost efficiency in EU banking markets. We also consider the potential role of a bank's mode of entry by comparing existing domestic banks that foreign banks take over (mergers and acquisitions) with new branches created by foreign banks, often through subsidiaries (greenfield operations). We consider the impact of cross‐border banks on cost efficiency (measured by the stochastic frontier approach), profitability (assessed through return on assets) and competition (measured by the Lerner index). We find that greenfield banks enhance cost efficiency and competition, while mergers and acquisitions hamper competition and cost efficiency. Therefore, our results suggest that EU authorities should promote only greenfield banks rather than all cross‐border entries.