IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i16p7004-d1457029.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analyzing the Determinants of Banking Profitability in European Commercial Banks: Do COVID-19 Economic Support Measures Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Florin Blaga

    (Doctoral School of Finance, Faculty of Finance and Banking, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010961 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Bogdan Andrei Dumitrescu

    (“Victor Slăvescu” Centre for Financial and Monetary Research, 050711 Bucharest, Romania
    Department of Money and Banking, Faculty of Finance and Banking, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010961 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Ioana Duca

    (Department of Finance, Banking and Business Administration, Titu Maiorescu University, 040051 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Ionel Leonida

    (“Victor Slăvescu” Centre for Financial and Monetary Research, 050711 Bucharest, Romania)

  • Dalia Poleac

    (Faculty of Business Administration in Foreign Languages, Bucharest University of Economic Studies, 010961 Bucharest, Romania)

Abstract

In this paper, we rely on a comprehensive dataset of European commercial banks from the ORBIS Database spanning from 2014 to 2022 and use an unconditional quantile regression to investigate the driving factors of profitability. By controlling for several bank-related factors, we aim to capture the influence of economic support measures on banking profitability as measured by the ROA. The major finding of the paper brings to light the negative impact of economic support measures on bank profitability, especially for banks associated with the lower and middle quantiles of the distribution of the ROA. This suggests that while government interventions are essential during economic downturns such as the COVID-19 pandemic, their impact on banking sector productivity is more complex. Indeed, when the government provides more intensive economic support in the form of direct subsidies, grants, or tax exemptions, it reduces the immediate dependence of economic agents on bank loans. If these entities receive funds directly from the government, their propensity to borrow from banks drastically decreases, resulting in a reduction in their interest income and other financial services.

Suggested Citation

  • Florin Blaga & Bogdan Andrei Dumitrescu & Ioana Duca & Ionel Leonida & Dalia Poleac, 2024. "Analyzing the Determinants of Banking Profitability in European Commercial Banks: Do COVID-19 Economic Support Measures Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-16, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7004-:d:1457029
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7004/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/16/7004/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    2. Athanasoglou, Panayiotis P. & Brissimis, Sophocles N. & Delis, Matthaios D., 2008. "Bank-specific, industry-specific and macroeconomic determinants of bank profitability," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 121-136, April.
    3. Kanas, Angelos & Vasiliou, Dimitrios & Eriotis, Nikolaos, 2012. "Revisiting bank profitability: A semi-parametric approach," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 990-1005.
    4. Saona, Paolo, 2016. "Intra- and extra-bank determinants of Latin American Banks' profitability," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 197-214.
    5. Klein, Paul-Olivier & Weill, Laurent, 2022. "Bank profitability and economic growth," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 183-199.
    6. Koenker, Roger, 2004. "Quantile regression for longitudinal data," Journal of Multivariate Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 74-89, October.
    7. Nicolai T. Borgen, 2016. "Fixed effects in unconditional quantile regression," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 16(2), pages 403-415, June.
    8. Pedersen, Lasse Heje & Fitzgibbons, Shaun & Pomorski, Lukasz, 2021. "Responsible investing: The ESG-efficient frontier," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 572-597.
    9. Ari, Anil & Chen, Sophia & Ratnovski, Lev, 2021. "The dynamics of non-performing loans during banking crises: A new database with post-COVID-19 implications," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Dietrich, Andreas & Wanzenried, Gabrielle, 2014. "The determinants of commercial banking profitability in low-, middle-, and high-income countries," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 337-354.
    11. Raftis, Achilleas & Karpetis, Christos & Papadamou, Stephanos & Spyromitros, Eleftherios, 2024. "Monetary winds of change: Exploring the link between policy shifts and bank profitability in developed and emerging European markets," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    12. Martins, António Miguel & Serra, Ana Paula & Stevenson, Simon, 2019. "Determinants of real estate bank profitability," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 282-300.
    13. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Muhammad Haris & Yong Tan & Ali Malik & Qurat Ul Ain, 2020. "A Study on the Impact of Capitalization on the Profitability of Banks in Emerging Markets: A Case of Pakistan," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, September.
    2. Mimouni, Karim & Smaoui, Houcem & Temimi, Akram & Al-Azzam, Moh'd, 2019. "The impact of Sukuk on the performance of conventional and Islamic banks," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 42-54.
    3. Cemil ÇİFTÇİ & Dilek DURUSU-ÇİFTÇİ, 2019. "Determinants of Bank Profitability after Transition to the Strong Economy Program in Turkey," Sosyoekonomi Journal, Sosyoekonomi Society.
    4. Maria Elisabete Duarte Neves & Maria Do Castelo Gouveia & Catarina Alexandra Neves Proença, 2020. "European Bank’s Performance and Efficiency," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.
    5. Leandro Coghi Bernardelli & Carlos Enrique Carrasco-Gutierrez, 2024. "Macroeconomic, industry-specific and bank-specific determinants of the profitability of Brazilian banks: dynamic panel evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 693-726, August.
    6. Muhammad Haris & HongXing Yao & Gulzara Tariq & Ali Malik & Hafiz Mustansar Javaid, 2019. "Intellectual Capital Performance and Profitability of Banks: Evidence from Pakistan," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-26, April.
    7. Ayaydin, Hasan & Karaaslan, İbrahim, 2014. "Stock Market Development, Bank Concentration, Ownership Structure, and Bank Performance: Evidence from Turkey," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 49-67.
    8. Muhammad Haris & Hongxing Yao & Gulzara Tariq & Hafiz Mustansar Javaid & Qurat Ul Ain, 2019. "Corporate Governance, Political Connections, and Bank Performance," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-37, October.
    9. Vijay Kumar & Sanjeev Acharya & Ly T. H. Ho, 2020. "Does Monetary Policy Influence the Profitability of Banks in New Zealand?," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Laura Baselga-Pascual & Olga Del Orden-Olasagasti & Antonio Trujillo-Ponce, 2018. "Toward a More Resilient Financial System: Should Banks Be Diversified?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Köster, Hannes & Pelster, Matthias, 2017. "Financial penalties and bank performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 57-73.
    12. Caby, Jérôme & Ziane, Ydriss & Lamarque, Eric, 2022. "The impact of climate change management on banks profitability," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 412-422.
    13. Samia Nasreen & Mehwish Gulzar & Muhammad Afzal & Muhammad Umar Farooq, 2024. "The Role of Corruption, Transparency, and Regulations on Asian Banks’ Performance: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 6475-6506, June.
    14. Saif-Alyousfi, Abdulazeez Y.H. & Saha, Asish, 2021. "Do tourism receipts affect bank profitability? Analytical evidence from 85 tourism economies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    15. Asteriou, Dimitrios & Pilbeam, Keith & Tomuleasa, Iuliana, 2021. "The impact of corruption, economic freedom, regulation and transparency on bank profitability and bank stability: Evidence from the Eurozone area," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 150-177.
    16. Isabel Linda Moyo & Victor Gumbo & Eriyoti Chikodza & Brian Jones, 2019. "An empirical study on the factors influencing the performance of financial institutions in Zimbabwe," International Journal of Finance & Banking Studies, Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 8(4), pages 01-20, October.
    17. Tu D. Q. Le & Dat T. Nguyen, 2020. "Capital Structure and Bank Profitability in Vietnam: A Quantile Regression Approach," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Tan, Yong, 2017. "The impacts of competition and shadow banking on profitability: Evidence from the Chinese banking industry," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 89-106.
    19. Richard Oduro, 2024. "Impact of recapitalisation and dividend payout policies on financial sustainability of rural and community banks in Ghana," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-18, December.
    20. Hasan AYAYDIN & Ýbrahim KARAASLAN, 2014. "Stock Market Development, Bank Concentration, Ownership Structure, and Bank Performance: Evidence from Turkey," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 49-67, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:16:p:7004-:d:1457029. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.