This study underscores the strategic role – both political and economic – of banking sector reform in the overall pursuit of economic development and democratization. It compares trajectories of banking sector reform in Middle Eastern and African countries that have remained on the margins of the new global economy. A close look shows that their governments’ willingness to embrace reform has di...

Measuring and improving the efficiency of the Chinese commercial banking system has recently attracted increasing interest. Few studies, however, have adopted the two-stage network DEA to explore this issue in the Chinese context. Because the entire operational process of the banking system could be divided into two sub-processes (deposit producing and profit earning), the evaluation of the sub...

We examine the relation between firms’ financial structures and their risky investment strategies in Taiwan’s banking industry. Regressions cover two subperiods: before the first financial reform (1996– 2000) and after the first financial reform (2001–2006), to address the impacts of the first financial reform on banking firms’ financial structures. Our first result demonstrates that the restri...

At a time when the worst global financial crisis since the 1929 Great Depression threatens the very survival of many global financial giants, the relatively better financial performance of Chinese banks stands out. This is commendable considering that these banks were “technically insolvent” not too long ago. This paper reviews China’s banking reform strategy and its implementation and analyzes...

Measured by share of deposits, 83 percent of the banking business in India is in the hands of state or nationalized banks, which are banks that are owned by the government, in some, increasingly less clear-cut way. Moreover, even the non-nationalized banks are subject to extensive regulations on who they can lend to, in addition to the more standard prudential regulations. Government control ov...

JEL Classification: G20, G 21, G28. With the start of deregulation in early 1990s in various parts of the world along with other types of changes in the banking rules and regulations (i.e. relaxing of Glass-Steagall Act 1933 in USA, Financial System Reform Act 1993 in Japan etc.) during the same period, most banks in Europe, USA and Japan as well as in developing world have tried to pursue the ...

To understand the transformation of banking in the post-communist transition, this paper examines the cost efficiency of 289 banks in 15 east European countries. The findings showed that banking systems in which foreign-owned banks have a larger share of total assets record lower costs and that the association between a country’s progress in banking reform and cost efficiency is non-linear. Ear...

This paper examines the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on the financial performance of the Nigerian market after consolidation. The authors use data from all Nigerian banks that survived the consolidation between 2001 and 2009. Logistic regression models are structured to determine the influence of M&A activities on the financial performance of the Nigerian market. Also, the authors c...

The issue of retail banking is extremely important and topical. Across the globe, retail lending has been a spectacular innovation in the commercial banking sector in recent years. The growth of retail lending, especially, in emerging economies, is attributable to the rapid advances in information technology, the evolving macroeconomic environment, financial market reform, and several micro-lev...

This paper examines the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) on the financial performance of the Nigerian market after consolidation. The authors use data from all Nigerian banks that survived the consolidation between 2001 and 2009. Logistic regression models are structured to determine the influence of M&A activities on the financial performance of the Nigerian market. Also, the authors c...