Measuring banking efficiency in Vietnam: parametric and non-parametric methods

Banking system is an important part of the financial system of each country. The operating efficiency in the commercial banking system will provide the tools and financial products more attractive and relevant to the needs of actors in the economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the efficiency of 26 Vietnamese commercial banks. The paper uses a quantitative method with the nonparametric frontier analysis, data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach, to measure the efficiency of Vietnamese commercial banks. The paper adopts an intermediation approach as the banks are viewed as financial intermediaries providing financial services and payment services to entities in the economy. Research findings reveal that Vietnamese commercial banks have effectively leveraged the positive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, since the average efficiency in 2020 improved over the pre-pandemic period in 2019 on the same models for comparison and estimation. Based on such findings, the study makes some suggestions and recommendations to help Vietnamese commercial banks increase their operational efficiency in the context of the prolonged pandemic.

Acknowledgment
The author wishes to acknowledge support from the Banking University – Ho Chi Minh City. This research was made possible thanks to all valuable support from relevant stakeholders.

In today’s increasingly competitive markets, it is essential to be able to determine the position of a company as opposed to its competitors. Today the traditional financial ratios are most widely used to measure corporate performance, but more and more authors begin to criticize their use. It is difficult to use financial ratios as a complex measurement tool. It is crucial to use an appropriate method or tool to measure corporate performance, which can measure the company’s performance in a complex way represented by one indicator. In this study, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method is used, which is one of the potential tools available. Several researchers have used the DEA method to measure corporate performance. Many authors consider DEA as a useful tool for measuring corporate performance, while others criticize it. The authors analyze the performance of retail food companies in Hungary’s Northern Great Plain region. The companies analyzed were chosen from the region investigated, and they have “food retail grocery store” as their main activity, and they had six cleared annual reports in the period 2012–2017. There was a total of 887 companies in the region examined, and 563 (63.5%) met the conditions. The analysis was made using the time-series data of companies for 2012–2017 based on their financial reports, and the authors dealt with various possibilities for extending DEA, which can support its more accurate use. Based on evaluating the retail food companies’ performance in the Northern Great Plain region, one can state that the efficiency of companies shows a very mixed picture over the years examined. The study suggests solutions to the indicated problem. The findings indicate that the application of extended DEA methods gives better results; that is, one can get better estimates of the efficiency of companies.

The non-life insurance companies indemnify the properties from the risk of being damaged due to unforeseen events like natural calamity or accidents. The probability of bankruptcy is imminent on account of large, unprecedented claims. As a risk saver of various society stakeholders, these insurers must be efficient while managing the insurance business. The present research thrusts upon to evaluate the efficiency and decomposition that would further direct the insurers towards achieving optimal scale. Thus, the captioned research aims to measure and rank the technical efficiency of the general insurance firms of Ethiopia and evaluate and analyze their relative efficiencies. The research adopts a quantitative approach and deploys descriptive analysis by a panel data of 17 Ethiopian general insurers for the period 2005-2016 on the input-output-oriented approach of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The data of general insurance are obtained using stratified sampling from the mix of life and general category. The inputs employed are total expenses, total liabilities, and shareholder’s fund, while net premiums earned and income from investments are used as outputs. The findings reveal that the public insurer is technically efficient by operating at an optimal scale as compared to all private insurers who, in turn, experience pure technical inefficiency to scale inefficiency due to poor management practices and erroneous utilization of input materials. Increasing Returns to Scale (IRS) witnessed a major form of scale inefficiency in 2016. Private insurers should increase capital and size of assets, cost efficiency, and improve key management skills.

Acknowledgment
The authors express their thanks of gratitude for the support extended by Ethiopia’s insurance companies’ officials to provide the hard copies of published annual reports up to 2016 as the secondary data are not available after that year’s analysis.