Global Financial Crisis and Banking Sector Efficiency: The Indian Perspective

Abstract

Banks play a crucial role in developing and least developed economies by facilitating in trade finance. Banks established an important linkage in international trade by guaranteeing international payments and thereby reducing the risk of trade transactions. The Banks in India has witnessed a significant growth, specialization and diversification since the initiation of financial sector reforms in 1991and further slowdown in the economy as a result of global financial crisis in 2008-2009. This study examines the performance of Indian banks using data envelopment analysis. Though, there are large number of literature have been published on banking efficiency, This is an attempt to investigate the impact of global financial crisis on performance of Indian banking sector. The sole objective of this study is to exhibit, utilizing empirical data, the quantum to which the global financial crisis had an impact on the performance of the Indian banking industry. This study gives a comparative empirical analysis of the technical efficiency of Indian commercial banks during pre and post crisis period covering 2005-2012 using non parametric technique i.e. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). This period is consisting of pre and post global crisis period which is characterized by far reaching experience of crisis period (2008-2009) and its impact on the efficiency of the Indian banking sector. Overall, the results reveal that the effect of international financial crisis on the Indian banks has not been significant. Instead, the analysis reveals there is a statistically insignificant improvement in the efficiency of Indian banks’ following international financial crisis. Furthermore, the paper shows that the commercial banks have a high degree of resilience and stability.