Board size, Independent directors, Thailand, Fixed-effects, Panel data, Commercial banks, Performance,

This study examines the cost efficiency performance of 111 commercial banks in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka over 1997-2004. The primary focus is to assess whether bank size, state ownership and stock exchange listing have significant effects on South Asian banks' efficiency performance. To this end, a translog-form composite-error cost efficiency model, which allows for exogenous environmental influences, is estimated. The results indicate that the overall efficiency of South Asian banks declined over 1997-2004. Larger banks and banks with widespread ownership through stock exchange listings were found to be relatively more cost efficient. In contrast, state-owned banks were less efficient.

This paper examines the nature of competition and structure in South Asian banking markets. It also assesses whether traditional interest-based product market segments are more competitive than those that also include fee- and commission-based products. The reduced form Panzar-Rosse specification tests show that bank revenues appear to be earned under conditions of monopolistic competition during the period 1995 to 2003. In Bangladesh and Pakistan competition is greater in the traditional interest-based product markets while Indian and Sri Lankan domestic commercial banks seem to face more competitive pressure in the fee-based product market from other financial intermediaries.

Existing research shows mutual fund flow is highly correlated with past performance in an asymmetric way, namely flow–performance convexity. Fund managers pursue incentives to manipulate fund characteristics to invoke future fund inflows. Given this body of evidence, how has the global financial crisis impacted on fund volatility and fee structures with respect to the flow–performance relationship? Using data for the period 1999 to 2011 (disaggregated into three sample periods) for US mutual equity funds, empirical analysis in this study shows mutual funds adopt a low‐risk strategy resulting in the greatest flow–performance sensitivity. An incremental dampening effect is observed on flow–performance convexity due to increasing riskiness of portfolios, more significant in the GFC period. In addition, the results indicate that pure operating expense weakens the flow–performance sensitivity, especially in the post‐GFC period. Advertising effects trigger greater investor response to past performance, particularly throughout the GFC. It is also documented that front‐end load is not a statistically significant in determining the flow–performance relationship; nevertheless, back‐end load on average dampens investor response to past performance, and this dampening impact is more evident in the post‐GFC period.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether any deviations in South Asian banks' interest margins can be attributed to market concentration (MC) after controlling for other bank-specific factors and exogenous environmental influences. Design/methodology/approach -The paper employs an improved structural price-concentration model with multiple definitions of market share (MS) covering loan and deposit markets. This model is estimated using generalized least squares method and random effect estimates are reported. The sample consists of 120 South Asian banks with a total of 1,226 bank-year observations over 1992-2005. Findings -The findings suggest that no significant deviations in bank interest margins can be attributed to MC. Instead, only dominant South Asian banks with larger MSs are found to extract higher interest margins.Research limitations/implications -This paper suffers from three main limitations: first, due to data limitations the sample only consists of South Asian domestic commercial banks. Second, due to the lack of product-specific interest rates the authors have to contend with approximated bank-specific interest margins. Third, throughout the study, annual bank-specific data are used due to lack of high-frequency data.Practical implications -The regulators should closely monitor dominant banks with larger loan and deposit shares because these institutions operate with higher interest margins. Similarly, state-owned banks (with relatively inefficient cost structures) should also draw regulatory attention for they extract higher interest margins, possibly, for survival. Originality/value -The existing literature is extended by utilizing a pooled cross-section and time series data model which controls for sample heterogeneity using proxies for cost structures, risk profiles and regulatory restrictions.