The Relative Efficiency of Commercial Banks in Pakistan with Respect to Size and Ownership Structure During and After Global Financial Crisis

Purpose: This study has been carried out to find out the relative efficiency of the commercial banks in Pakistan over a five- year period from 2006 to year 2010 using Frontier Approach of efficiency. The commercial banks included in this research paper are public sector banks, privatized banks, domestic private banks, and foreign banks. In addition to overall efficiency comparison of the commercial banks, this study has also tested the effect of size and ownership structure of the commercial banks in Pakistan on their efficiency. Data/Design/Methodology/Approach: Out of 44 banks, 21 commercial banks have been chosen, which, in terms of deposits, account for about 94 percent of total deposits of the banking sector (Rs.5,124,308 million) as on December, 2010. Secondary data of the banking firms have been gathered from their audited financial statements. Intermediation approach has been used by employing Data Envelopment Analysis. The relative efficiency of the commercial banks has been investigated in context of intermediation approach which transforms labor and capital into advances/loans and investments. Findings: Over all a very few commercial banks have achieved 100% efficiency. It is, however found that privatized and domestic private banks have shown better efficiency in terms of financial intermediation as compared to public sector and foreign banks. The size of the banks has a very slight effect on the relative efficiency of the banks. The global financial crisis has affected the efficiency of some of the commercial banks but for a small period of time. Originality: This paper is an attempt to find out the relative efficiency of the commercial banks during the mentioned period which lies during the Global Financial Crisis. Its findings would be of great value for every stratum of society including bankers, business community, academicians, and government and of course, the investors.