Original scientific paper

Efficiency of Banks in Northern Croatia

Katerina Fotova Čiković orcid.org/0000-0003-0138-1362 ; University North, Croatia
Joško Lozić orcid.org/0000-0001-5568-5279 ; University North, Croatia
Mirko Smoljić orcid.org/0000-0002-2858-4656 ; University North, Croatia

Abstract

Banks are important financial intermediaries of any national economy and especially vital in bank-based systems as the one in the Republic of Croatia, where banks hold a crucial role in the financial system, with a share of almost 70% of the total assets of the financial sector in 2018. This paper aims to evaluate and discuss the relative efficiencies of three small-sized commercial banks operating and headquartered in Northern Croatia by implementing the output- oriented DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methodology. The model uses two input and two output variables, following Banker et al. (2010), Cvetkoska et al. (2021a) and Cvetkoska et al. (2021b). Even though the sample consists of 20 banks operating in Croatia at the end of 2019, only three of them are headquartered in Northern Croatia (Banka Kovanica d.d., Varaždin; J&T banka d.d. Varaždin and Podravska banka d.d. Koprivnica). They are the main focus of this research. The time frame is from 2015 to 2019. The findings show that J&T Banka d.d. Varaždin noted 86.8% efficiency, Podravska Banka d.d. Koprivnica 78.7% and the most efficient of these small-sized banks is Banka Kovanica d.d. Varaždin with an efficiency score of 100% in the whole observed period. The total average efficiency score for the whole Croatian sector is 90.9%. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights and feedback for the analyzed bank’s management as well as for the bank’s stakeholders, which would ultimately lead to an improvement of efficiency of the analysed banks, and eventually, the whole banking system. Notwithstanding, the findings could bring light to the fact that small-sized banks operating in rural counties could be neglected by researchers in Croatia, but also globally. The results are somewhat in line with many previous studies that found large banks to be more efficient than small banks.

Keywords

banks, commercial bank, small-sized banks, efficiency, DEA, data envelopment analysis, Northern Croatia

Hrčak ID:

278991

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/278991

Publication date:

1.12.2021.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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