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This study investigates the reasons behind the very high net interest margins in the Greek banking industry compared to the euro-area, focussing on the association between bank competition and recapitalisations.

The author conducts a dynamic panel analysis covering the period from the early 2000s to 2021, that controls for possible endogeneity and treats for heterogeneity. The author also employs local projections impulse response functions that control for structural changes in Greek banking.

The author finds that low bank competition has contributed to high net interest margins in Greece. Interestingly, the impact of recapitalisations conditional to low bank competition has had a significant further impact on increasing net interest margins, which is a noteworthy case due to several Greek bank recapitalisations in the last ten years. The author’s findings are supported by local projections impulse response functions.

To mitigate distortions in bank competition, the author argues to accelerate steps toward the direction of the banking union and a common bank regulation framework in the euro-area.

Average bank net interest margins vary widely across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, net interest margins of Omani banks are significantly higher. The resultant low level of financial intermediation implies reduced investment and economic growth. Understanding the reason for these high and persistent spreads is important to develop a policy for improving effectiveness of the banking system. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Net interest margins of Arab GCC banks during the period 1999-2012 are examined using the balanced panel regression model with bank specific, financial/market structure specific and macroeconomic factors as determinants. The method used for estimation used is the estimated generalized least squares (EGLS) method with both fixed effects and random effects.

Bank-specific variables, which explain net interest margins in GCC, are bank capitalization ratios, loan ratios and overhead expenses. Spread of banking sector (as measured by ratio of total bank credit to GDP) is positive and highly significant, implying that along with the expansion of the banking sector in GCC economies, interest margins of banks also improved. Omani banks were able to increase interest margins by aggressively marketing high yield personal and credit card loans, and, zero interest paying deposit products. The study also finds a negative relationship between concentration and net interest margin, and attempts to explain this finding which is at variance with other country studies using the price leadership model of oligopoly.

The standard, accepted econometric model of net interest margins which has been used in earlier studies is unable to explain the high net interest margins of banks in Oman although it is able to explain interest margins in other GCC countries. There is a need to develop non econometric models. More work is needed on the implications of NIM spreads for how they affect an economy.

The study shows that as the banking sector spreads in the economy, individual banks have more opportunities to market their products while at the same time maintaining interest margins. Bank managements should note this point and look for opportunities to expand.

There is no evidence of any empirical studies which focused on net interest margins in the GCC countries. This study attempts to fill in this gap with a view to nudge policy makers to look at the issue of high interest margins and its detrimental impact on economic growth and development in the Gulf region. The paper is useful for policy makers to understand and rectify the problem of excessive interest spreads which is hurting the financial intermediation process.

The purpose of this paper is investigate the impact of financial reforms, financial liberalization and banking regulation and supervision policies on net interest margins by using the BankScope database of 76 economies.

The micro-panel data of more than 1,300 banks of 76 developed and developing economies over the period 2001-2005 have been used to investigate the relationships of financial reform, financial liberalization, banking supervision and regulation with net interest margins by using dynamic two-step system of generalized method of moments.

The empirical results provided the evidence that financial reform have a negative and statistically significant impact on bank interest margins. Specifically, it is important to note that in a weakly regulated and supervised environment, financial liberalization has a negative and insignificant impact on net interest margins. The findings of this paper also explain that the huge entrance of banks, the removal of interest rate controls, strong banking regulation and supervision and effective liberalization policies have reduced net interest margins in sample countries.

The originality of this research into the existing literature is the inclusion of some recently introduced determinants such as index of financial liberalization (with range 0-3 meaning fully repressed to fully liberalize) and banking regulation and supervision, bank age and the share of foreign and government banks. This paper applies large micro-data to explore the relationship of financial reform, financial liberalization and banking regulation and supervision on net interest margins. This paper also tries to explore the relationship of different levels of liberalization and banking supervision with net interest margins in detail.

The purpose of this paper is to study the link between, on one hand the interest margin of the bank, and the determinants of the interest margin on the other. The basic importance of bank interest margin or spread (BIS), arises from the fact that it presents an indicator of a bank's profitability as well as the cost of financial intermediation imposed on both its depositors and debtors.

To test the relationship using multiple linear regressions with lagged variables (OLS – ordinary least squares). In addition using correlation analysis as well as bootstrapping model was necessary to overcome the issue of unknown statistical distribution of small data samples.

The quantitative study reveals proposed positive and significant correlation between bank interest margins and proxies of interest‐rate risk, negative correlation with risk averseness, positive but slightly lower correlation with credit risk variable, and finally, not so strong influence of foreign bank entry. Research limitations/implications –To be more reliable, models should include individual bank‐specific data for cross‐banks examination, an area worthy of further research.

Having implemented the methodology, the paper draws some policy recommendations. To make interest margin optimal, authorities should redesign existing system of deposit protection together with building institutional credit guarantees and thus enable relevant information to flow freely amongst participants, i.e. to establish official information sharing arrangements for bank industry.

This is the first econometric study of the bank interest spread determinants for the Serbian banking industry.

The purpose of this paper is to determine of bank margins for conventional and Islamic banks in the dual banking system in Malaysia.

The study uses unbalanced panel data for 20 conventional banks and 16 Islamic banks over the period 2008-2014. The dynamic two-step GMM estimator technique introduced by Arellano and Bond (1991) is applied.

The results suggest that there are significant similarities with minor differences in terms of factors determining bank margins between conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia. The margins for conventional banks are influenced by operating costs, efficiency, credit risk, degree of risk aversion, market share, size of operation, implicit interest payments and funding costs. For Islamic banks, the margin determinants are found to be operating costs, efficiency, credit risk, market share and implicit interest payments. This means that more factors influence the margins in conventional banks compared to Islamic banks. Although bank diversification activities have increased in recent years, their impact on bank margins is minimal.

The results suggest that improving operational costs, operational efficiency and credit risk management, and minimising implicit interest payments would be the best strategy to enhance the bank margins for both conventional and Islamic banks. The results also have important policy implications on the necessity to expand the size of Islamic banking in Malaysia.

There are relatively few studies concerning determinants of bank margins in emerging markets. The present study adds to the literature by presenting evidence from Malaysia, an emerging market with a dual banking system. This allows us to explore the similarities and differences between conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia in respect of determinants of the margins.

Purpose – This chapter investigates the effect of capital requirement regulations, both national and those issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, on banks’ interest rate margins between loans and deposits. Higher capital requirements lead to higher margins, as banks pass this additional cost to consumers.

Methodology – To estimate this effect, we use yearly data from a cross section of countries and fixed/random effects regressions. Our results exhibit a stronger statistical significance when we focus on a cross section of 20 transition economies from Central and Eastern Europe between 2000 and 2008.

Findings – Once we include institutional factors, as well as banking system and macroeconomic-related variables, we are able to explain more than 60% of the variation in interest margin across countries. We find that the banking capital to asset ratio positively and significantly impact the margin: we estimate that a 1 percentage point increase in capital requirements leads to a 20 basis point increase in the interest rate margin. The banking system liberalization index has a strong and significant impact on margin, with a higher degree of liberalization bringing about lower margins. The impact of a one-step increase (1/3 on a scale of 1 to 4) is a reduction in the margin by 1.25 percentage points. Other variables that influence the margin are real interest and inflation, both with a positive sign.

Implications/value of chapter – National banking authorities should not impose higher capital requirements than those recommended by the Basel Committee, as this would increase local borrowing costs. Romania's 15% capital requirements (vs. 10% required by Basel rules) have increased the interest rate margin by at least 1.5 percentage points.

There is abundant literature analyzing the determinants of banks’ profitability through its main component: the net interest margin. Some of these determinants are suggested by seminal theoretical models and subsequent expansions. Others are ad-hoc selections. Up to now, there are no studies assessing these models from a Bayesian model uncertainty perspective. This paper aims to analyze this issue for the EU-15 countries for the period 2008-2014, which mainly corresponds to the Great Recession years.

It follows a Bayesian variable selection approach to analyze, in a first step, which variables of those suggested by the literature are actually good predictors of banks’ net interest margin. In a second step, using a model selection approach, the authors select the model with the best fit. Finally, the paper provides inference and quantifies the economic impact of the variables selected as good candidates.

The results widely support the validity of the determinants proposed by the seminal models, with only minor discrepancies, reinforcing their capacity to explain net interest margin disparities also during the recent period of restructuring of the banking industry.

The paper is, to the best of the knowledge, the first one following a Bayesian variable selection approach in this field of the literature.

This paper investigates the performance characteristics of Turkish private and state‐owned commercial banks for the 1986– 1990 period. The link between interest margins and maturity structures of bank asset and liabilities is specified. Empirical evidence indicates that banks with longer positions experienced lower interest margins, a finding consistent with the presence of a downward sloping yield curve during most of this period. The results document that bank margins suffered after the financial reforms of 1988. Further, compared to private banks, state‐owned banks exhibited lower interest margins and longer maturities, which is a direct consequence of portfolio constraints and management style of banks.

This paper examines the effect of financial (banking) freedom and market power on bank net interest margins (NIM).

The study uses data from 11 sub-Saharan African countries over the period, 2006-2012, and the system generalized method of moments to assess how financial freedom affects the relationship between market power and bank NIM.

The authors find that both financial freedom and market power have positive relationships with bank NIM. However, there is some indication that the impact of market power on bank margins is sensitive to the level of financial freedom prevailing in an economy. It appears that as competition intensifies, margins of banks in freer countries are likely to reduce faster than those in areas with more restrictions.

Competition policies could be guided by the insight on how financial freedom moderates the effect of market power on bank margins.

This study provides new empirical evidence on how the level of financial freedom affects bank margins and the market power-bank margins relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact on bank risk of portfolio diversification between traditional margin income and fee‐based income for banks operating in Australia.

Considering several performance variables, this analysis compares the benefits of diversification across different bank types relative to margin income and fee income. Further, regression analysis considers bank risk and revenue concentration.

This paper documents that fee‐based income is riskier than margin income but offers diversification benefits to bank shareholders. While improving bank risk‐return tradeoff, these benefits are of second order importance compared to the large negative impact of poor asset quality on shareholder returns.

These results have implications for all stakeholders in Australian banks. The results suggest that shareholders of banks will benefit from increased bank exposure to non‐interest income via diversification. From a regulatory perspective, diversification reduces the possibility of systemic risk, but caution must be offered with respect to banks pursuing absolute returns rather than monitoring risk‐return trade‐offs, and so exploiting the benefits of the implied guarantee offered by “too big to fail” However, shareholders should also monitor bank exposure to non interest income to ensure that they do not become over‐exposed to the point where the volatility effect outweighs the diversification benefits.

The results of this study suggest that Australian regulators should consider requiring increased disclosure of the composition of bank non‐interest income. Such disclosure would aid in understanding the changing nature of banking in Australia. Given the recent sub‐prime crisis in the USA and the role played by fee based income sourced from securitization, increased disclosure of the nature of bank non interest income is now of global importance. This disclosure is particularly germane within the context of the implementation of Basle II, with its increased emphasis upon market discipline, given that Stiroh found increased disclosure in this area is accompanied by improved market pricing for risk.