Title: Are banks profitable and efficient? A case of Pakistan

Authors: Muhammad Ali; Chin Hong Puah

Addresses: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia; Department of Business Administration, IQRA University, Karachi (75300), Pakistan ' Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of bank-specific factors and macroeconomic environment on bank profitability and management efficiency in Pakistan. The sample data comprised of 24 banks over a sample period of 2007-2015. The panel least squares regression with fixed effect model suggests that bank profitability is significantly affected by bank size, credit risk and bank stability. On the other side, bank efficiency was significantly predicted by liquidity risk, credit risk and funding risk. The robustness of results was also confirmed in the presence of the macroeconomic environment. Overall, this research provides a new insight into bank profitability and efficiency literature. Additionally, prior studies have neglected the management efficiency as the dependent variable. Therefore, we consider this article as superior, which has laid a foundation for future studies.

Keywords: banking sector; finance; profitability; management efficiency; macroeconomics; Pakistan.

DOI: 10.1504/AAJFA.2022.123051

Afro-Asian Journal of Finance and Accounting, 2022 Vol.12 No.2, pp.254 - 277

Received: 18 Sep 2017
Accepted: 27 Oct 2018
Published online: 26 May 2022 *

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