Is there a liability of foreignness in global banking? An empirical test of banks' X‐efficiency (original) (raw)

Is Foreign-Bank Efficiency in Financial Centers Driven by Home-Country Characteristics?

Social Science Research Network, 2011

This paper investigates the effects of home country banking regulations on the performance of foreign banks in Luxembourg's financial center. We control for the main regulatory indicators, such as capital requirements, private monitoring, official disciplinary power and restrictions on bank activities, accounting for the regulatory regime applied to foreign banks. We also control for the level of GDP in the home country and its position in the business cycle. The two-stage bootstrap method proposed by Simar and Wilson (2007) is applied to bank panel data covering 1999-2009. The analysis carries policy implications for bank regulators in both home and host countries and provides insight into the choice between establishing a branch or a subsidiary, when developing cross-border activities through financial centers.

Efficiency and Foreign Ownership in Banking: An International Comparison

2005

This paper estimates cost and profit efficiency for Latin American and the Caribbean banking sectors. This study also conducts a comparative analysis of the performance of foreign and domestic banks operating in these counties. Using a model proposed by , a common cost and profit frontiers with countryspecific environmental variables have been estimated for a panel of 427 banking firms from sixteen countries. The empirical analysis reveals the importance of the environmental variables in explaining the efficiency differences among countries. The results show that profit efficiency levels are well below those corresponding to cost efficiency, implying that the most important inefficiency is on the revenue side. The results further indicate that on average foreign banks are more efficient than domestic banks. JEL classification: G21; G28

The Performance of Foreign-Owned Banks in Host Country Economies

Prague Economic Papers, 2015

The paper deals with the phenomenon of foreign bank ownership, which is prevalent in the countries of Central, Eastern and South Eastern European region as well as in New Zealand. Using a sample of 17 countries and filtering out more than 140 domestically operating foreign-owned banks, we examine the determinants of their performance in relation to host country conditions over the period of seven years between 2005 and 2011. Based on our knowledge, we use the largest data set in this respect compared to other researchers. Using system GMM and fixed effects models, we reveal that macroeconomic fundamentals of the host country affect the foreign-owned banks’ performance but do not suffice in explaining it fully. This result points out that sound banks with higher operational efficiency operating in growing economies with low inflation rate tend to perform better than their peers.

Foreign Banks are More Efficient–a Myth or Fact?

International Journal of Business and Management, 2009

The study was conducted to explore the myth that foreign controlled banks were supposed to be more profitable and efficient than local controlled ones. Two out of three financial indicators, understudy, pointed out that the overall performance of the foreign commercial banks, operating in Pakistan, was 24.44% better than the local controlled banks. At the end of Year 2007, foreign investors were controlling 58.22% of the outstanding shares in the commercial banks, in Pakistan. Despite the fact that 40% of the foreign controlled commercial banks were running into deficit, the bank and the capital efficiency of the foreign controlled banks running into profit was better than locally controlled commercial banks. CEOs & directors are having substantial control on the financial affairs of the banks and have a direct relationship with the earning per share and bank efficiency but less control on the profit before tax. The executives-shareholders seem to have lesser liaisons with CEOs & directors but have more impact on the earning per share and bank efficiency.

Impact of Foreign Banks

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

This paper provides a critical assessment of the costs and benefits of foreign bank ownership. It reviews the extensive literature on the impact of foreign banks and uses a unique database on bank ownership, covering 129 countries, to (re-)examine a number of the issues discussed. It documents (changes in) foreign bank presence between 1995 and 2009, highlighting important differences across host and home countries and strong bilateral patterns. It finds that foreign banks tend to outperform domestic banks in developing countries, countries with weak institutions and where foreign banks do not play a major role. In addition, being from a geographically close home country increases the profitability of foreign banks. In terms of impact, it shows that foreign banks can deter domestic financial sector development in developing countries, countries with weak institutions and where foreign banks play a minor role. Examining the impact of foreign banks on financial stability, it finds that during the global crisis, foreign banks reduced credit more compared to domestic banks in countries where they had a small role, but not when dominant or funded locally. These findings show that, when analyzing the impact of foreign bank presence accounting for heterogeneity, including bilateral ownership, is crucial.

Internationalization of Banks: Strategic Patterns and Performance

This essay investigates the relationship between the internationalization of banks, profitability and shareholder value. We argue that in general internationalization has not contributed to profitability, and shareholders have not gained by investing in banks with more international activities. A database with internationalization measures is constructed for the 3 to 5 largest banks in 8 countries between 1980 and 2003, leading to a sample of 44 banks. The transnationality index is calculated for each bank, combining foreign assets, foreign income and foreign staff into one index. To examine the relationship between internationalization and performance, we calculated the difference between foreign and domestic profitability. We also investigate if more internationalization is related to more profitability. The key finding is that foreign profitability tends to be lower than domestic, and a negative relationship exists between total profitability and internationalization. Also, a &qu...

Characteristics determining the efficiency of foreign banks in Australia

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2008

The factors determining foreign bank efficiency are investigated using a three stage research method. It is found that host market incumbency reduces efficiency of foreign banks in Australia, resulting in over use of inputs. Factors underlying the limited global advantage hypothesis of Berger, et al. (2000) are identified, in that nationality specific factors represented by dummy variables are not significant once other relevant effects are controlled for. Parent profitability is not found to result in increased host nation efficiency, while parent credit rating effects are mixed. Some evidence is presented that banks from more financially sophisticated nations are more efficient. The implications of these results are explored from the perspectives of bank management and bank regulators.

Bank efficiency and foreign ownership: Do good institutions matter?

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2008

This paper contributes to the literature on foreign ownership and bank efficiency by examining whether the efficiency of foreign banks depends on the institutional quality of the host country and on institutional differences between the home and host country. Using stochastic frontier analysis for a sample of 2095 commercial banks in 105 countries for the years 1998-2003, we find that foreign ownership negatively affects bank efficiency. However, in countries with good governance this negative effect is less pronounced. We also find that higher quality of the institutions in the home country and higher similarity between home and host country institutional quality reduce foreign bank inefficiency.

Relative Efficiency of Foreign and Domestic Banks

This paper seeks to examine empirically whether foreign banks on an average operate with greater efficiency and so attain higher levels of productivity and profitability. For this purpose, first, a stochastic frontier production function for the banking industry is estimated and bank-wise technical efficiency is computed. In the second stage, the authors compare the mean efficiency level of foreign banks with that of domestic banks. In addition, foreign and domestic banks are also compared with respect to the other measures of performance, namely, productivity and profitability.