Iryna Chmutova

This paper presents the recommendations for selecting a kind of financial innovation in a bank based on the results of theoretical research regarding its usage as a tool for ensuring bank financial soundness. The study is aimed at developing an approach to selecting a kind of financial innovation depending on the level of bank financial soundness and the stage of bank life cycle. The existing method of identifying a bank’s life cycle stage in the framework of the developed approach was improved: it was offered to use the criteria of the growth rates of a bank’s market share, total income, staff costs and net cash flow for grouping banks by the stage of their life cycle and conduct two-steps clustering which helps to determine those banks which are on the transitional stages and to refer a bank to a similar group (growth, stabilization and decline). The empirical results of its implementation suggest that there are three groups of Ukrainian banks that vary according to the stage of bank life cycle (growth, stabilization, decline), excepting those institutions which are on the transitional stages. By the example of banks which represent the main characteristics of each cluster, the authors recommend to launch particular kinds of financial innovation in bank operating activity, taking into account the peculiarities of each group. The empirical results confirm the relevance of the developed approach and its value for identifying the current phase of a bank’s development and managing its financial soundness.

Keywords: bank financial soundness, bank life cycle stage, cluster analysis, discriminant analysis, Ukraine.
JEL Classification: G21, D91

Despite the widespread use of benchmarking as an effective tool for improving the efficiency of the bank’s functioning, its implementation does not take into account the relation between comparable performance indicators, the choice of benchmark for comparison, deviations of indicators from target values with stages of the bank’s life cycle, which cause differences in the intensity and characteristics of development of financial institutions. The procedure for identifying a reference bank for comparison is also insufficiently specified, which is important in terms of adapting its experience by the recipient bank due to the possible fundamental differences in their functioning. Therefore, the article has modified the technology of benchmarking of the bank’s performance based on the life cycle concept and the DEA approach.
The research is based on the use of the DEA method to determine the most efficient bank as a reference bank in benchmarking comparison; canonical analysis – for the formation of a list of indicators of bank performance; cluster analysis – to substantiate the levels of deviations of the actual values of comparable indicators from the target ones.
The study envisages, firstly, the selection of indicators for benchmarking comparisons based on the identification of causal relationships between the indicators of subsystems “Finance”, “Customers”, “Business processes”, “Personnel development” that arise at each stage of a bank’s life cycle; secondly, the choice of a benchmark bank for comparison according to the maximum value of the performance indicator calculated through the DEA method for a set of banks that are at one and the same stage of their life cycle; thirdly, definition of the range of deviations (low, permissible, critical) of the actual values of comparable indicators of the effectiveness of management of finance, customer base, business processes and personnel of the bank from the target ones. A practical testing of the benchmarking technology was carried out on the example of Ukrainian banks, whose stage in 2016 was identified as “intense growth”.

According to the stages of the banking system stability monitoring, the analysis of caus¬al links is used to identify the causes of the crisis trends spreading and the rationale for the most effective levers of regulatory influence on the banking system parameters by the central bank.
The research is based on the use of the canonical correlation method for structuring causal links between the indicators for the assessment of the banking system stability, which are grouped into four sub-indices (assessing the intensity of credit and financial interaction in the interbank market, the effectiveness of the banking system functions, structural changes and financial disproportions in the banking system, activities of systemically important banks); the method of regression analysis and the calculation of elasticity coefficients is also used to assess the sensitivity of the banking system stability to changes in parameters that characterize the banking regulation instruments.
The article analyzes the results of quantitative and qualitative assessment of the banking system stability (comparison of actual results of the evaluation with the data for previous years and comparison of values of stability indicators with critical values). The causes of detected deviations are determined taking into account the results of applying the canonical correlations method. Regression models have been constructed to confirm the dependence of the banking system stability index on the change in parameters that characterize banking regulation instruments, and to determine the most effective of them. Practical testing of submitted proposals is realized based on the Ukrainian banking system indicators for 2007–2016.