Emerging Market Banks Research Articles

The Impact of Technological Innovations on Bank Performance in Emerging Economies

On a global scale, technological innovations have achieved great success in the process of economic development of national economies, especially in the banking sector. Technological innovation is largely used by the banking sector to create competitive intelligence and competitive advantage, as it helps banks improve their services and cost efficiency, as fewer employees and fewer traditional branches are needed. However, this current study focused on examining the impact of technological innovation on bank performance in 40 emerging markets from 2000 to 2021. Findings from the correlation results show that there are strong positive correlations between technological innovation and bank performance in emerging markets. Similarly, we also find the existence of cointegration between technological innovation and bank performance and the existence of a long-run relationship between technological innovation and bank performance in emerging markets, as implied by the results of tied tests. Our study also found from ARDL and GMM results that there are long-term significant relationships between technological innovation and emerging market bank performance. After making these discoveries, we recommended policies such as improving the technology hub of emerging markets and extending banking services to emerging markets' underbanked populations living in remote areas using technology tools to improve bank performance in emerging markets.

Capital flow deflection under the magnifying glass

AbstractLeveraging on a new quarterly dataset of capital control adjustments, we find renewed evidence that the introduction or tightening of capital controls in one economy increases capital inflows to other similar borrowing economies, an effect often called capital flow deflection. However, not all flows are deflected alike. Capital flow deflection is primarily driven by portfolio investment and bank credit, and only controls targeting these types of flows generate this externality. Moreover, analysing bilateral capital flows in order to capture investing countries' characteristics, we find that capital controls tend to deflect flows from advanced economies' portfolio equity investors, while controls on bank‐related flows primarily deflects lending from emerging market banks.

Impact of banking sector competition on emerging market banks’ safety and soundness – A study on Indian Banks

The literature is unsettled on the simultaneous existence of Competition-Stability and Competition-Fragility phenomena in the banking system. Our study has extended the debate where we have incorporated accounting-based information along with 2-SLS system equation modeling to further explore linkages between competition, systemic risk, and stability prevailing in the Indian banking system. The study revealed that for Indian banks competition and systemic risk are inversely related. Systemic risk build-up occurs during the business growth cycle, and it spillovers onto the banking system during the economic down-cycle. The article finds that while a healthy competition would support the overall stability of banks, a fierce competition exerts competitive pressure on the banking system, and hence it negatively contributes to the bank’s stability. It has supported the financial fragility hypothesis and envisages that increased capital restricts competition, and aggressive loan creation increases fragility.

Does it pay off to invest in bank staff training? Survey‐based evidence from an emerging market banking sector

AbstractWe explore the role of staff training and experience for banks' efficiency and profitability, while accounting for size, solvency, liquidity and business model of the banking sector. We try answering two questions: (i) are banks with higher levels of staff training and experience more efficient and profitable and (ii) do banks that spend more to increase the quality of their staff have better outcomes in terms of NPLs, in case of a downturn? We use two novel sources of microdata from a one‐off survey about banks' HR policies and a database on banks' balance sheets and P&Ls regarding the Romanian banking sector. We apply the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach to estimate production frontiers and rank banks by cost and income efficiency. Our main findings support the conclusion that it pays off to invest more in the quality of bank staff, from both risk management and revenue efficiency perspectives.

Competition–banking stability: the moderating role of government intervention quality in North African countries

PurposeThis study investigates how bank competition affects financial stability and whether government intervention contributes to shaping this relationship in North African countries.Design/methodology/approachA review of the literature on the subject was conducted, combined with an empirical analysis that used a two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) and a sample of 45 banks operating in North African countries over the period 2005–2019.FindingsThe findings reveal a quadratic relationship between competition and banking stability in North African countries. Competition–stability view and competition–fragility view could be applied at the same time for North African banks. Additionally, in this context, results highlight a negative impact of government intervention on financial stability in a competitive financial sector. North African banks operating in a high government intervention quality environment tend to engage in high-risk investments. Robustness checks with alternative measures of competition and banking stability also show consistent results.Originality/valueTo the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the North African context has been explored to determine the role of the quality of government intervention in the relationship between competition and banking system fragility. This paper seeks to cover the shadow field in existing literature through further new information. Thus, it contributes to the emerging market banking literature by showing that both high and low levels of competition can improve financial stability in North African countries. Moreover, it expands its contribution by displaying the moderator effect of intervention quality on the bank competition–stability relationship.

Reverse Efficiency Spillovers from Host Country Banks to Foreign Banks: Evidence from Emerging Market Bank Subsidiaries in Developed Markets

Reverse Efficiency Spillovers from Host Country Banks to Foreign Banks: Evidence from Emerging Market Bank Subsidiaries in Developed Markets

THE TAIWAN BANKING SECTOR - THE IMPACT OF LIBERALIZATION AND MACRO ECONOMIC FACTORS. AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF TAIWAN

ABSTRACT National culture is a well-researched and significantly impactful factor as nations transition from developing to emerging to fully developed status. Adam Smith set forth the idea that certain “norms” were required for capitalism to grow, and subsequent research has indicated that cultural factors are significant in both bilateral trade and the participation in stock markets. While many factors significantly influence the efficiency of emerging market banking and the internationalization of currency, perhaps none is more important than the financial liberalization of a nations' banking system. This paper investigates the process of liberalization of Taiwan's banking sector since the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and into present day. The steps undertaken by the country are reviewed and what foreign banks may offer in terms of increasing competitiveness amidst the domestic banks, is examined. The effects of liberalization are analyzed by developing a model and tested by an empirical framework using linear regression. Results indicate significant direct effects of liberalization on emerging market banking efficiency, and a significant negative moderation effect of NPAs. Lessons are drawn for other markets currently engaged in efforts of liberalization of their financial services industry. Keywords Liberalization, Emerging Markets, Banking System Efficiency, Capital Adequacy, Non-performing assets

Regional Expansion of Emerging Market Banks: Evidence from the Middle East

This study investigates challenges and opportunities that regionally expanding emerging market banks face. We focus on four leading Middle Eastern banks’ internationalization trajectories and performances by employing a case study approach. We first examine the four banks’ choices of target markets, entry sequencing, and entry modes over time and then analyze their entry strategies and post-entry financial performances in one of their key markets, Turkey. We show that the success of regional expansion strategies depends on parent bank characteristics such as scale and capital strength, strategic decisions regarding entry mode and timing, and host market structure and competitiveness.

Contagion risk: cases of Islamic and emerging market banks

PurposeGlobally influential Islamic banks from the Middle East and Southeast Asia carry voluminous correspondence banking with banks from China and India, leading to potential spillover effect of contagion among the banks from these regions. This study aims to investigate the Islamic banks systemic risk contagion with major banks from China and India.Design/methodology/approachHaving the option pricing theory in the backdrop, the authors calculated three different distance to risk measurements (default, insolvency and capital). The authors have included top six listed globally influential Islamic banks, top seven Indian banks and top eight Chinese banks based on their net asset value. They then measured the banks’ extreme shocks based on the extreme value theory by using the logistic regression model. These extreme shocks helped the authors to map the spillover among the selected banks from multiple regions.FindingsThe authors have found strong evidences of directional risk spillover among the banks in this sample. Islamic banks are receiving a significant risk spillover from the other sample banks but transmitting less toward the other banks from India and China. Hence, there is strong one-directional risk contagion toward the Islamic banks in the study sample.Practical implicationsThis research would be particularly useful to the regulators and bankers from emerging and Islamic markets to understand the conniving nature of the crisis by effectively mapping the source, destination and implementation of the shock transmission mechanism of the potential financial contagion.Originality/valueEven though the corresponding banking among the top Islamic banks from the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, and banks from India and China, is on the rise, the assessment of risk among these banks has been limited. In particular, the authors extended on the extreme value theory to focus on the wider impact of spillover, including significant direction of contagion from non-Islamic banks to Islamic banks.

Deriving value or risk? Determinants and the impact of emerging market banks’ derivative usage

This paper examines the determinants of the emerging market banks’ derivative usage and the impact of derivative usage on bank value, total risk and bank stability. Our empirical evidence first suggests that derivative usage is driven primarily by net interest margin, bank concentration and institutional strength. In addition, although derivative usage appears to reduce emerging market bank value, it does not affect total risk. Moreover, emerging market banks can reduce bank instability using derivatives. Our findings have important implications for investors and policy makers focusing on emerging derivatives markets.

Intellectual capital and financial performance: Case of the emerging market banks

Using the value added intellectual capital (VAIC) this study aims to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on the performance of Jordanian banks listed in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the years 2005-2018. Two empirical models were designed to test the effect of VAIC, and its three components including capital employed efficiency (CEE), human capital efficiency (HCE) and structural capital efficiency (SCE) on banking performance. The results of the study show that there is a significant and positive relationship between VAIC and banks profitability presented by return on assets (ROA). Meanwhile, when VAIC is split into components, SCE, CEE and HCE have a significant and positive impact on banks performance. Yet, CEE has more influence on performance compared to HCE and SCE. This study contributes to the literature as well as practitioners in financial institutions by providing evidence on the influence of intellectual capital on banks performance in an emerging economy, Jordan, in which its national vision and strategy emphasize the importance of intellectual capital in sustaining its economic growth.

Global Public‐Private Investment Partnerships: A Financing Innovation with Positive Social Impact

Global bond markets, along with banks and governments, are the main source of funding for investment in environmentally friendly infrastructure and the transition to clean energy. Although such bonds are a relatively recent innovation, the green bond market has grown rapidly from its start in 2008 to around $800 billion in outstanding issues. The problem, however, is that green bonds, which represent less than 1% of global bond markets, have been issued disproportionately by government‐sponsored entities, corporations, and municipalities in developed markets. In the emerging market countries where the infrastructure investments are most needed, they barely exist.The authors describe a new investment vehicle, called the AP EGO fund, whose mission and MO are to channel the vast global pools of institutional savings that are now invested in low or (even negative) yield fixed‐income assets—as much as $17 trillion in 2019—to higher‐return emerging markets green investments, in particular sustainable infrastructure, by creating a new asset class: emerging‐market green bonds issued by banks.The AP EGO fund is premised on and involves a reworking of the public‐private partnership (PPP) into a form they call the global public‐private investment partnership (or GPPIP). Unlike the PPP, which combines a public agency with a private operator, the GPPIP has four instead of just two partners. In addition to the standard public agency and the private concession operator, there is a development bank—in this case the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is the financial markets affiliate of the World Bank—and private investors that include emerging‐market banks as well as global institutional investors.Along with the mediating role played by a public agency like the IFC, the AP EGO Fund is fundamentally different from other PPPs in that it takes the form of a special purpose securitization vehicle whose shares are backed by a pool of green bonds issued by emerging market banks in multiple emerging market countries. And besides its application to a new asset class, the fund also breaks new ground by applying a securitization technique with a fund structure designed with an embedded “first‐loss” protection to a global pool of green bonds originated in emerging market economies. By means of this structuring, the green‐bond‐backed fund shares issued by the AP EGO are now providing developed market institutional investors with somewhat higher‐yielding fixed income securities that nevertheless carry an investment‐grade rating.

Spillovers and diversification potential of bank equity returns from developed and emerging America

We examine the network spillovers, portfolio allocation characteristics and diversification potential of bank returns from developed and emerging America. We draw our results by applying a directional spillover index, the tail-event driven network (TENET) and nonlinear portfolio optimization methods on bank returns. We find that the spillovers and connectedness among banks from emerging America are noticeably smaller than those among banks from developed America. The largest emerging market spillover transmitters and receivers are the banks from Brazil, followed by the banks from Chile. The largest developed market spillover transmitter is JP Morgan Chase. The connectedness among banks from developed America is dominated by the banks from the USA, relative to those from Canada. The total connectedness of the emerging market banks is more intensified than that of the banks from developed America due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. The portfolio optimization shows that in developed America, the largest banks from the USA are the largest risk contributors to total portfolio risk, whereas the banks from Canada contribute the least risk. In emerging America, the banks from Brazil contribute the most risk to total portfolio risk while the banks from Peru and one bank from Colombia contribute the least risk. The portfolio of banks from emerging America offers greater diversification potential and lower total portfolio allocation risk.

Fortune Favors the Bold: Evidence from an Emerging Market Bank Merger

This study analyses one of the largest and controversial mergers from the Philippine Banking sector and links it to M&A theories: Firstly, this study survey prior M&A literature to identify merger motivations, synergies and factors affecting merger outcomes. Secondly, this study conducts a case study to link prior literature to a merger in an emerging economy. This merger provides an ideal setting for a case study, subsequent links to M&A theories and generalizable lessons for future bank mergers in emerging markets. Furthermore, this study identifies key factors and steps taken by the acquiring bank management to obtain success such as doubling net income, assets and becoming the number one bank in Philippines post-merger.

Leveraging local knowledge or global advantage: Cross border bank mergers and acquisitions in Africa

This paper examines global financial markets perception of value creation for banks from across the world initiating or expanding their operations on the African continent through mergers and acquisitions (M&As) over the period 2000–2018. Especially before and during the financial crisis, we document a strong advantage of Pan-African Banks (PABs) over domestic and emerging market banks and a slight advantage over advanced market banks. These results are in line with the hypothesis that PABs benefitted from both a global expertise and local knowledge advantage in the market for corporate control. We also document how retrenchment of global banks during and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis have created opportunities for PABs.

Do environmental, social and governance performance affect the financial performance of banks? A cross-country study of emerging market banks

Purpose Earlier firms were evaluated mostly from their financial performance perspective, but with the increasing attention to sustainability goals, environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of firms became key concerns to stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of ESG performance of banks on their financial performance, in the context of emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach This study employs the generalised method of moments technique for estimation purpose due to the dynamic nature of the data and to correct for endogeneity. This study uses the ESG performance data of 93 emerging market banks from 2015 to 2018, available in Asset4 ESG database of Refinitiv, formerly known as Thompson Reuters. The accounting and financial data are collected from Refinitiv Datastream database. Findings The findings indicate a positive association of emerging market banks’ environmental and social performance with their financial performance, but governance performance does not influence financial performance. Originality/value While many studies exist on the association of ESG concerns of an organisation with their financial profitability, the literature on in the context of banking is still limited. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the effect of ESG practices of banks on their financial performance in the context of emerging economies.

Risk factors explaining returns anomaly in emerging market banks – study on Indian banking system

The article provides evidence about the risk factors influence the pricing of banking stocks in the context of emerging economies like India. We use 10 years of data comprising of public and private banks for empirical evidence of abnormal returns. We deploy Fama-French 3-Factor and Carhart 4 Factor model, with and without innovations, to explain the presence of abnormal returns. Comprehending the limitation of the firm specific factors (size and value) accounting for the risk-based returns, we develop a parallel model based on conditioning information like the banks’ profitability, asset quality, capacity to leverage, operating margin and loss assets provisioning. We find that on inclusion of the bank-led performance parameters the explanatory power of the alternate model has significantly improved to 52.21 as compared against a value of 44.28 reported in case of Indian Banks using the Carhart 4-Factor Model (1997). We observe that our findings add-up to indicate significant propositions in estimating the bank specific risk factors that influence the prices and in-turn the returns of banking stocks in emerging markets.

Profitability effects of financial globalization in an emerging market banking industry: insights into Turkey

The massive financial liberalization followed by accelerating financial globalization leaded to significant structural changes in the financial sector. Since financial institutions play a dominant role in functioning of financial sector, especially in emerging markets where banking industries are generally among the most sensitive sectors to increased interconnectedness of financial markets, how financial globalization actually affects the efficiency of financial intermediation is a vital question. However, although there exists plenty of research focusing on financial integration, impacts of financial globalization is untouched. Hence, this study investigates the bank profitability effects of financial globalization through focusing on an emerging market, Turkey and searches for any potential differences that may prevail among banks with different ownership structures. The findings indicate that while the market based profitability measures improve with financial globalization, the accounting based measures deteriorate pinpointing to an over optimism in the market which in turn brings in mispricing problems. Besides, ownership structure is found to affect the market based measures where banks with domestic and private ownerships are found to benefit more. However, since no significant distinction could be detected among any of the ownership compositions for accounting based profitability measures, such misappraisals seem to foster the optimism in the market.

Motives, choice of entry mode, and challenges of bank internationalization: Evidence from China

This study examines the motives, entry mode choice, and challenges of the international expansion in an emerging country context. Data were collected via interviews from 30 senior managers based on a sample of 10 Chinese commercial banks (CCBs) involved in international expansion over the period of 2001–2013. This study finds greenfield and mergers and acquisitions are the most popular foreign entry mode used by CCBs. The motives of emerging market banks’ internationalization appear to be intrinsically linked to market development to serve customers operating in overseas market, government policies, and strategic knowledge sourcing. In terms of challenges, the study finds lack of management resources/technical capacity, culture, adapting to the host country regulatory environment, and lack of experience to be the main challenges to bank internationalization.

Development of Banking Activities in Emerging Market Countries

The global financial crisis of 2008 has shown the importance of a sound and profitable banking industry in developed, developing and emerging countries as well. Therefore, it is highly valuable to understand the development of banking activities in emerging market economies not only for evaluating the impact of them for encouraging emerging economies’ growth, but also establish the overall effect of these processes to global financial market. Moreover, during the last few years, the role of the emerging economy in the world economy is increasing substantially due to its economic growth, industrial potentials and a massive supply of resources and labour to the advanced economy countries. The number of researches conducted on the problem concentrated on two opposing opinions stating the foreign banks either encourage overall efficiency or cause financial instability. Despite a huge literature on this topic, the risk foreign banks impose on emerging market countries’ domestic banks should be evaluated in advance. The primary goal of this research work is to evaluate the extent of development of banking activities in emerging market countries and provide an analysis of the performance of emerging market banks. In article the author described the process of development of banking activities in emerging market economy countries.