G21 - Banks; Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; MortgagesReturn

Commercial real estate loans (CREL) are a modern essential business segment and of major relevance to the financial stability of an economy as they interconnect the financial markets and the real economy. Consequently, CREL are of specific interest to regulatory authorities. As far as the author knows, there exists no universal definition of CREL in the global financial industry and the regulatory environment. This has been subject to criticism due to resulting gaps and bias in data generated by regulatory filing. This study contributes to academia and applied sciences by providing the missing link. It develops a comprehensive categorization of CREL on a foundation of 34 sources predominately provided by regulatory authorities in the US and the EU. The categorization is based on a qualitative synthesis of main CREL characteristics of this particular heterogeneous asset class outlined in the detected sources. The objective of this work is to support the development of a common understanding of this investment segment among banks, institutional investors and regulatory authorities in order to allow an accurate and prompt filing.

The main objective of this study is to examine the effect of ownership structure on financial performance of Ethiopian commercial banks. Hence, the financial performance of state owned commercial bank was compared with privately owned commercial banks in Ethiopia based on key financial performance measures. In order to achieve the stated objective, the study adopts a quantitative research approach by using financial ratio analysis and test for means equality analysis techniques. Samples of fifteen commercial banks were selected based on the year of establishment. Audited financial statement data covering from 2011 to 2017 analyzed. The result reveal that ROEs of public sector bank was higher than those of private banks but the overall performance of state owned bank was not observed sound because other financial ratios including ROA, LDR, CDR, CAR and NIM, of most of the private banks were found superior. Other findings of the study show that there is a significance difference between the financial performance measures like ROE, CDR, LDR, CAR, EIR and NIM between states owned CBE and the privately owned banks in Ethiopia. In terms of ROA, not statically significant difference between state owned and private commercial banks in Ethiopia over the studied period.

This paper investigates the mechanism of a financial accelerator. In particular, it examines the procyclicality of credit margins in Europe after the financial crisis, with an additional split into small, medium and large-sized banks. The empirical analysis is in contrast with contemporary authors because it approves that the financial accelerator is not present on the European market after the financial crisis. It could be caused by multiple factors, for example structural changes during the financial crisis, a change in the behaviour of commercial banks or extremely low interest rates. We tested our hypothesis on a dataset that consists of a data panel with annual data for the period 1998-2015 and includes 2,489 banks from 36 European countries from the Bankscope database. We also provide robust empirical proof that such behaviour was not occurring during the financial crisis or after the financial crisis in the European banking system.

We focus on the determinants and potential benefits of relationship banking. Based on the existing literature and the unique role intangible assets play regarding firms' capital structure, we test two hypotheses using rich data on firm-bank relationships in Germany. We show that firstly, a high share of intangible assets does not worsen the access of firms to debt financing. And secondly, firms with a high share of intangible assets are statistically significantly more likely to choose an exclusive and persistent bank relation.

The objective of the study was in two parts; first, to construct an overall risk index to ascertain risk level of banks listed on Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), second, to ascertain whether there is a significant relationship between risk management and bank performance. Secondary data of all listed banks on GSE over the period 2007-2014 was used and a panel regression data approach and a risk index were constructed for all listed banks. Findings show that, banks listed on Ghana Stock Exchange have declining risk indexes on average over the latter part of the study period indicating that the Ghanaian Banking Regulator may have to impose additional prudential and regulatory requirements to ensure banks remain solvent. We also find evidence that risk management is positively related to performance of GSE listed banks when the latter is measured from ROE perspective.

The research on the banking efficiency all around the world has been one of the main topics for the international financial sectors over the last years. The special case is in Europe. Some of the countries are in the European Union. The European Commission creates the rules for safer and sounder financial sector in these countries. In the past, these rules brought a lot of controversy whether they help to all countries in the European Union or just some of them. The purpose of this article is to determine the development of different types of efficiencies for banking industry in the Visegrad Group. Generally, the development is measured by the Malmquist approach. Different type of index is used in this article, more precisely the Hicks-Moorsteen Total Factor Productivity index. It is one of the alternative indexes. The results have showed that the model with the variable return to scale assumption is better for the use in banking industry in the Visegrad Group, as this model is more precise about the results.

The article focuses on the Age Management philosophy and the concept of Work-life balance in the selected Czech banking institutions. The objective of the article is, inter alia, to determine whether the selected Czech banking institutions are dominated by stereotypical perception of the employees and further to reflect over how the concept of the Work-life balance can affect the context of aging of the population and the Age Management philosophy. The article presents a view of some of the results of quantitative and qualitative research conducted in the selected Czech banking institutions in the Czech Republic. The research group of the questionnaire survey included in total 180 employees of banking institutions working in and responsible for the area of human resource management and 282 employees of the 50+ age category. The results of the inquiries show that these institutions are more or less not dominated by prejudices and the corporate culture is welcoming and friendly to all the employees regardless of their biological age. The satisfaction with the measures carried out in the Czech Republic in association with the 50+ employees was assessed rather negatively. The concept of Work-life balance is supported across the board, not based on the context of the Age Management philosophy.

Taking the leading role of the banking industry in the financial system into consideration, this paper constructed a financial vulnerability index by using the method of principal component analysis, and found China's financial vulnerability showed a slightly upward trend in general. In order to confirm the macro factors affecting financial fragility, dynamic regression models were constructed. As a result, the authors obtained seven major macro factors. Finally, the authors determined that an overheated economy, increasing inflation, excessive growth of the country's fiscal expenditures, and export shocks will increase financial vulnerability. However, the increasing investment in real estates and fixed assets may reduce the risk in the financial market. Therefore, China needs to adapt to the new normal economic development model, weaken government intervention in the financial markets, deepen financial reforms, and maintain steady development in the financial system.