This paper analyzes the total factor productivity developments in the Middle East banking, by drawing on the experience of Jordanian banks at the start of the new millennium. In order to control for the effects of different specifications of banking technology on the results, this study estimates the productivity and efficiency growth scores under two alternative approaches, production and intermediation models. On average, under the former model, we found 79% technical efficiency and 3.2% productivity growth, while under the later model we found 92% technical efficiency and 3.3% productivity growth for the sector. One implication is that the Jordanian banks can obtain considerable resource savings if they can catch up with the best practice banks. Among the organizational forms operating in this emerging market, we found that commercial banks generally outperform both investment and Islamic banks in terms of efficiency and total factor productivity growth.Peer-reviewed Academic Journal published by SSBFNET with respect to copyright holders. Page3to improve the overall performance of the banking sector and determine the causes of non-optimal behavior observed among their banks. By the revelation of the most efficient and productive banks, this study provides a "model" to follow for the managers of poorly performing banks. By the same token, policymakers may foster overall managerial performance of banks by first identifying "best practices" and "worst practices" associated with the most and least efficient banks and then encouraging the former practices while discouraging the latter (Berger and Humphrey, 1997;Isik, 2008). Furthermore, this paper has also some important research implications. Studies from different regulatory environments and market structures may help us conceive the impact of these differences on bank performance. For instance, the Jordanian banking market is highly concentrated as compared to those of advanced economies. For instance, the three-bank concentration ratio is 91% for Jordan, whereas it is 19% for the US, 22% for Japan, 41% for France, 45% for Germany and 0.56% for the UK. The Jordan's concentration ratio is also higher when compared to those of other emerging markets, such as 59% for Tunisia, 64% for Bangladesh, 65% for Egypt, 0.69 for Peru, 0.74 for Pakistan and 0.87 for Uruguay (Demirguc-Kunt and Levine, 1999). In some cases, the recent finance literature reports that there is a negative association between market concentration and bank performance (Berger and Mester, 1997;Berger et al., 1998). It is possible that banks of concentrated markets become less motivated to operate efficiently and productively, as they do not face strong competition from new banks and non-bank financial institutions. Moreover, the lack of developed money and capital markets also provides comfort for banks of emerging countries, as "disintermediation" from depositors and borrowers has not threatened their business yet to the extent that it did in developed markets. Therefore, ceteris paribus, comparison...