Bank Efficiency amid Foreign Entry: Evidence from the Central American Region

April 1, 2010

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Torsten Wezel. Bank Efficiency amid Foreign Entry: Evidence from the Central American Region, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2010) accessed December 26, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper investigates the efficiency of domestic and foreign banks in the Central American region during 2002-07. Using two main empirical approaches, Data Envelopment Analysis and Stochastic Frontier Analysis, the paper finds that foreign banks are not necessarily more efficient than their domestic counterparts. If anything, the regional banks that were acquired by global banks in a wave of acquisitions during 2005-07 can keep up with the local institutions. The efficiency of these acquired banks, however, is shown to have dropped during the acquisition year, recovering only slightly thereafter. Finally, it is important to account for the environment in which banks operate, as country-, sector- and firm-specific characteristics are found to have a considerable influence on bank efficiency.

Subject: Banking, Commercial banks, Foreign banks, Productivity, Tax expenditures

Keywords: Percentage, Takeover, Technical efficiency, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

33
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2010/095
Stock No:

WPIEA2010095
ISBN:

9781451982725
ISSN:

1018-5941

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