EVALUATING EFFICIENCY OF BANKS OPERATING IN SOME MIDDLE EAST COUNTRIES: ISLAMIC VERSUS CONVENTIONAL BANKS
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Date
2024-02-11
Authors
Muna Ghaleb Mahmoud Nairat
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Abstract
Abstract
Background: Improving efficiency is central to the success of any financial institution, especially in today's competitive market environment. Focusing on improving efficiency helps banks reduce costs, increase profits, enhance customer satisfaction, improve competitiveness, and enhance financial stability.
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the technical efficiency and identify the main factors contributing to the efficiency of Islamic and conventional banks in Iran, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.
Methodology: (83) banks participated in this study during the period 2013–2017, where secondary data was obtained from the annual financial reports of banks operating in the selected regions. and then analysed using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the degree of technical efficiency and Regression analysis was also used to determine the main factors affecting the technical efficiency.
Results: The results of the DEA showed that Islamic banks are more efficient in using inputs (assets, capital, and deposits) to produce outputs (income, investment, and advances) from conventional banks in these countries, as well as their role in confronting the political and economic conditions that these countries suffer from, and that conventional banks in Syria and Lebanon are more efficient than Islamic banks because of government restrictions on Islamic banks, while Islamic banks in Iran, Jordan, and Palestine are more efficient because governments do not impose restrictions on their work.
The results of the regression analysis showed that bank size, capital adequacy, liquidity, profitability, GDP, poor asset quality and non-performing loans positively affect the technical efficiency of these countries' banking sector. The rule of law adversely affects this technical efficiency due to increased administrative costs. The study also revealed that Islamic banks are more efficient than conventional banks, and this is due to the business strategy of Islamic banks, which focuses on reducing costs, which leads to increasing their technical efficiency.
Recommendations: Based on the results, the researcher suggests that regulatory authorities pass laws focusing on efficiency, determine the level of efficiency banks must achieve, and expand the geographical and temporal scope of the study to obtain more reliable results and proposals to improve the efficiency of the banking industry.
Keywords: data envelopment analysis; technical efficiency; Islamic banks; conventional banks.