Bankers and financial advisers in an emerging economy: are they financially literate?

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.

This paper examines how competition affects bank fragility and how this relation varies in normal times and during a financial crisis using the data from Indonesian commercial banking industry. The author finds significant evidence, both statistically and economically, that more competition reduces bank fragility. In particular, the author finds that a decrease in Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) of deposits by 100 points leads to an increase in bank Z-score by 14.22 percent from its mean. Similarly, a decrease in HHI of loans by 100 points leads to an increase in Z36 by 20.44 percent. This finding is consistent across different kinds of robustness tests, including endogeneity, as well as alternative bank fragility and competition measures. However, this competition-stability nexus holds only in normal times and is reversed during a financial crisis. This suggests that the impact of competition on bank fragility is conditional on the economic condition.

The goal of this study is to determine the elements that contribute to the profitability of commercial banks in Saudi Arabia. The study is important due to the fact that Saudi vision 2030 foresees Saudi Arabia as a global investment powerhouse and fulfilling this objective requires a profitable banking sector. The method chosen for the study is multiple regression analysis. The sample data is taken for the period ranging 2009 and 2015 for the 12 local banks. The research concludes that bank’s internal factors specifically, bank size, liquidity, credit risk and operational efficiency are significantly determining the profitability in the banks as compared to the economy’s macro-economic variables.