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This paper describes how behavioral biases influence the resolution of financial covenant violations. Prior literature documents that violation waivers are common; however, there is a lack of discussion on the determinants that lead loan officers to waive covenant violations. We rely on the escalation of commitment bias (or the sunk cost phenomenon) to discuss how loan officers may become attached to a selected course of action and fail to incorporate new information, increasing the likelihood of covenant waivers. We explain the implications of this bias on bank financial reports by detailing how accounting links loan quality to bank financial statements. We further draw on the psychology literature to offer potential solutions to mitigate overcommitment in the context of loan officers. Future research can examine the extent to which loan officers knowingly or unknowingly steer away from rational decision-making. This study has practical implications as users of bank financial reports, including investors, auditors, examiners, and bank managers, learn about processes and challenges on how accounting mechanics link bank loan portfolios to financial statements.

Policymakers and scholars acknowledge the significance of small and medium enterprises in stirring the economic growth and development in developing and developed economies. In spite of the generally fast pace by which access to financial services for small and medium enterprises is being established, significant segments of the small and medium enterprises sector do not yet benefit from the expansion. This study, therefore, investigated the effect of relationship lending on access to financial services by small and medium enterprises in Kenya. The study was based on credit rationing theory and information asymmetry theory. The target population comprised 4,253 small and medium enterprises in Kenya. A sample size of 366 SMEs was used by the study. The study adopted a multistage sampling technique to obtain the SME respondents. Primary data was utilized and was acquired through semi-structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics utilizing Heckman two-stage regression model. The study findings showed that relationship lending had a positive and significant effect on access to financial services among SMEs in Kenya. The study concluded that relationship lending plays a critical role in access to financial services by SMEs in Kenya. The study recommends that SMEs owners should strive to meet the terms and conditions provided by lending institutions in their various financing practices while management of the lending institutions should adopt financing practices favorable to SMEs to increase their access to financial services.

Averting the risk of falling short on the expected profitability of a bank requires the knowledge of the underlying determinants. Knowledge of long-run underlying determinants of profitability assists banks in comprehensive planning. In this backdrop, the paper seeks to identify the long-term fundamental risk factors and their impacts on their profitability. The FM-OLS regression method is employed using annual data on the components of profitability as well as internal and external determinants of profitability of Amalgamated Bank of South Africa (ABSA) bank from 1998 to 2014. The study is particularly importance since bank-specific studies aimed at identifying long-run fundamental factors of profitability has not been given much attention in literature. Evidence from the study indicates that profitability of ABSA is cointegrated with its determinants. It is further observed that, with the exception of inflation and GDP, all the determinants have significant long-term impact on profitability. However, although size has significant impact on net interest margins, its impact on return on equity is insignificant. The results further suggest that capital and stock market capitalization pose risk to aggregate profitability of ABSA. It is therefore recommended that in future, ABSA should resort to optimal equity financing to maximize its expected profitability.

Bank profitability plays a significant role in the growth and development of an emerging economy. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of bank characteristics, industry concentration and macroeconomics variables on commercial bank profitability in Bangladesh from 2007-2017. Bank profitability is proxied by return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM). The study is based on secondary data and Hausman test has been performed using STATA software in favor of fixed effect modeling. Panel regressions shows that cost efficiency has significant negative impact on ROA and NIM. The positive impact of loan to deposit ratio with ROA suggests that efficient fund management including investment and assessed expenditure should be emphasized. Bank size has significant negative impact on all the measures of profitability, which indicates that monopolistic competition will reduce banking profit. Credit risk has significant positive impacts on ROE. Industry concentration measured by CR3 is positively related with ROE and has significant negative relation with bank profitability (ROA). Among macroeconomic variables inflation has significant positive and bank spread has significant negative impact on ROE. The coefficients of all the macroeconomic variables have been found to be significantly related to bank profitability while measured by NIM. Our study recommends further research with other explanatory variables such as, corporate governance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and deposit insurance to accelerate the model and construct the econometric model by using structural equation modeling, mediation effect modeling etc.

This study aims to examine and analyze the influence of interest rates, exchange rates and capital structure on profitability in state-owned and private banking go public in Indonesia. This research is quantitative research based on the study of empirical rational principles. Collecting data using secondary data with purposive sampling technique, the sample consists of Commercial Banks Business Group (BUKU IV) with core capital > Rp 30 trillion. The data analysis technique used panel data regression analysis using EVIEWS version 11 software. The results showed that the interest rate had a positive and significant effect on banking profitability; Exchange Rate has a negative and significant effect on Banking Profitability; Capital Structure has a positive and significant effect on Banking Profitability; Interest Rate, Exchange Rate, and Capital Structure simultaneously have a positive and significant effect on Banking Profitability

The banking sector in Sri Lanka has been portrayed by significant changes in the past few decades. It is widely perceived that competition in the Sri Lankan banking sector has improved since the introduction of the financial sector reforms in the 1990s. By applying Panzar-Rosse (PR) approach to test the degree of competitiveness, this paper assesses the validity of this claim in the context of the Sri Lankan banking sector during 1996-2018. The sample covers a broader set of bank-level panel data of the whole commercial banking sector which comprised of 25 licensed commercial banks. The EGLS procedure applied in this study revealed that during the stated period, the Sri Lankan banking sector had been moderately competitive.  Further analysis also disclosed that there is no significant difference between the state-owned banks and private banks regarding their degree of competitiveness, as well as their temporal dynamics. Another striking observation revealed in this analysis is the lower level of competitiveness among foreign banks compared to the competitiveness of local banks. The Competitiveness of the Sri Lankan banking sector however is characterized by non-price competition, as on many occasions the interest rate depends on government policies. Hence, this study provides new insight into the nature of financial sector competitiveness in underdeveloped countries. The outcome of the research implies the necessity of attempts of all banks towards re-aligning their strategies to attract and retain customers. This would be the major challenge that banks face in accomplishing a higher level of competition in the banking industry in the future.   

The main purpose of this study is to measure up to what extent the independent factors defined by capital adequacy ratio, non-performing loans ratio, cost-income ratio, liquidity ratio, and loans-to-deposits ratio impact the financial performance of sixteen commercial banks operating in the United Arab Emirates using panel data for the period of 2013-2019. The secondary data was collected from banks and examined by applying standard descriptive statistics and the random effect model for hypothesis testing. It is concluded from the regression outcomes that non-performing loans ratio and cost-income ratio have a significant negative impact on commercial banks profitability in the United Arab Emirates, while capital adequacy ratio, liquidity ratio, and loans -to-deposits ratio all have a very weak positive relationship on the return on assets but they are not determinants of bank’s profitability due to the insignificant statistical impact on it. It is therefore suggested that to enhance financial performance and minimize the risk of non-performing loans in the future, banks must watch very carefully the loans’ performance and analyze thoroughly the clients’ credit history and ability to pay back their debts prior to any approval of loan applications. Furthermore, banks should continuously improve their assets utilization, liquidity, and techniques of managing operating costs, improve the impact of capital adequacy, and the use of deposits for lending activities from a weak positive impact to a significant positive impact on their profitability. The researchers recommend that future studies on credit risk management influence on banks’ financial performance should consider more independent variables and longer periods of study such as twenty or thirty years to have more accuracy and generalized results.  

Liquidity risk is the potential that an entity will be unable to acquire the cash required to meet its short and intermediate-term obligations. Deposit-taking Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisation (SACCOs) face liquidity risk when they are unable to fund their operations and lending requirements to their members as and when circumstances demand. Given that liquidity is a key phenomenon on the optimal functioning and financial performance of deposit-taking SACCOs, this study critically analyzed the effect of liquidity risk on the financial performance of DT SACCOs in Kenya. The study used a descriptive survey design and employed regression methods to model the relationship between liquidity risk and financial performance of DT SACCOs. The data were analyzed at a 5% level of significance. The study findings revealed that at a 5% level of significance, liquidity risk had a statistically significant influence on the financial performance of deposit-taking SACCOs. Basing on the findings, DT SACCOs are encouraged to focus on enhancing the mobilization of deposits to ensure that an asset portfolio that minimizes liquidity risk is maintained.

Despite core banking, banks also engage in off-balance-sheet (OBS) market activities. In many developed banking industries, OBS activities have grown to be significant during the last two decades. This paper provides rather scarce evidence on the competitiveness among banks for OBS activities and its impact on the degree of banking sector competition in Sri Lanka. Panzar-Ross H statistic approach employing in this study to estimate bank competition used a comprehensive set of bank-level data of the whole commercial banking sector in Sri Lanka covering the period 1996-2018. The first-round analysis of the study uncovers substantial differences among banks concerning the OBS activities. EGLS panel estimation procedure applied in this study provides evidence for a lower level of competitiveness among Sri Lankan banks for OBS activities. More interestingly, the findings further reveal that the degree of competitiveness for OBS activities has a significant positive impact on the overall competitiveness of the banking sector in Sri Lanka.  These results suggest banking institutions re-visit their business models with greater emphasis on nonconventional banking activities in enhancing bank-level efficiency and hence positively contributing to the overall competitiveness of the banking sector.

This paper provides rather scares evidence on the nexus between bank competition and economic growth in a unique developing economy; Sri Lanka for the period 1996-2018. The effect of competition in the Sri Lankan banking sector on economic growth, and the mechanisms through which competition affects growth are analyzed in the present paper. The VEC model used in this study was aimed at capturing independently the short and long-term effect of bank competition on economic growth. The competition is measured with Pazar-Ross H- Statistics. Contrary to the common wisdom, the study found evidence for negative effects of bank competition, on economic growth in the short run. However, in the long run, this effect is strong and positive. Further, the statistical results of this paper revealed that higher bank competition channels economic growth through interest rate and bank efficiency. These findings have important policy implications as it gives great insight into the complexity of competition related conduct in developing countries.

This paper provides interesting insights into the practices of banks and institutional setting in Sri Lanka. The sustainability and stability of banks that makes up an economy’s banking system should be sound at all time. This paper aimed at analyzing the determinants of banking sector stability in Sri Lanka. The study used a broad set of macro and bank level data covering 22 commercial banks for the period 1996-2016. The fixed effect GLS panel data model tested in this paper sets the relationship between bank stability measure; Z-score and business environment which includes bank characteristics and the elements of macro environment. The analysis of the study revealed lower level of Z-scores and thus lower level of bank stability, indicating a higher risk associated with the commercial banking sector in Sri Lanka.  From among the variables tested, strong evidence was found for a positive effect of bank efficiency on bank stability and a negative effect of credit growth on bank stability. At macro level, bank stability is promoted at a higher rate when the economy is more developed and stable. The results imply that efficiency of commercial banks needs to be further improved and regulatory and policy environment should be strengthened to manage the credit growth at the bank level. Further, it is suggestive to strengthening bank supervision and other financial infrastructure in order to ensure sustainability of the banking sector. Thus, the present paper contributes the current banking literature by unveiling the explicit and unforeseen economic implications associate with individual bank operations and macro imbalance which are particularly unique in underdeveloped countries.