A Comparison of TOPSIS and ELECTRE Methods: An Application on the Factoring Industry

One of the most important factors in national economic development is the vigorous operation of financial markets. The vigorous function of financial markets depends on the operations of financial institutions such as stock exchange, banks, leasing and factoring companies in these markets. In recent years, the status and significance of factoring companies as non-bank financial institutions have been increased, especially in providing financing for the SMEs. In the present study, the financial performance of factoring companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange was assessed and multi-criteria decision making techniques ELECTRE and TOPSIS, were implemented. More objective and accurate assessments could be achieved with multi-criteria decision making techniques, ELECTRE and TOPSIS, which are used when multiple evaluation factors are present. For this purpose, six factoring companies were selected and the financial statement ratios for each company were used as evaluation criteria. The calculated financial ratios and financial ratio weights were included in analyses conducted with both methods and Yapı Kredi Factoring was determined as the factoring company with the best performance as a result of conducted ELECTRE and TOPSIS analyses.