How Does Ownership Affect Bank Performance?-The Case Of Indian Commercial Banks

Abstract

Financial system reforms in recent decades have significantly reshaped the Indian commercial banking system. Despite substantial changes in the ownership and structure of Indian Banking system, fewer reliable studies have been conducted to empirically investigate the effect of ownership on various performance dimensions. Drawing upon experiences of Indian commercial banks during 2002-2009, this study analyzes how state-owned, nationalized and domestic private banks are behind foreign banks, using data envelopment analysis together with three supplementary measures of performance. The findings suggest that the performance of domestic banks has not yet reached the level of foreign banks in terms of both cost and revenue efficiencies. Surprisingly, domestic private banks are the least efficient in the market. Though foreign banks outperform domestic counterparts in multiple aspects, their contribution for spreading banking services beyond metropolitan cities by establishing new branches is trivial and thus they make the least contribution to country’s financial deepening.