The determinants of bank profitability in Europe

Abstract

The rate of return earned by a financial institution is affected by numerous factors. These factors include elements internal to each financial institution and several important external forces shaping earnings performance. The type of explanation would determine possible policy implications and ought to be taken seriously. This paper reviews the literature on bank performance studies and classifies the bank profitability determinants. The second part of the paper quantifies how internal determinants (" within effects " changes) and external factors (" dynamic reallocation " effects) contribute to the performance of the EU banking industry as a whole in 1994-1998. We construct OLS and fixed effects models, and the results provide a new perspective for understanding the impact of changes in competition on the performance of the EU banking industry. The estimation results suggest that the profitability of European banks is influenced not only by factors related to their management decisions but also to changes in the external macroeconomic environment. The results are in contrast to studies that have examined the structure-performance relationship for European banking and find a positive effect of the concentration and/or market share variables on bank profitability.