“…In terms of bank efficiency and productivity, the outbreak of the global financial crisis has driven a surge of banking studies (Matousek, Rughoo, Sarantis, & Assaf, ; Tsionas, Assaf, & Matousek, ), unfolding the paramount importance of financial intermediaries within the economic system. In terms of productivity growth, evidence is rather limited with studies that apply parametric methods to evaluate bank productivity (Boucinha, Ribeiro, & Weyman‐Jones, ; Feng & Serletis, ; Feng & Zhang, , ). As indicated in a review of non‐parametric productivity applied in banking by Fethi and Pasiouras (), the majority of studies adopt a non‐parametric approach (Fukuyama & Weber, , ; Liu & Tone, ).…”