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This paper investigates cyclicality of Islamic banking relative to conventional banking. We examine whether loan growth and profitability have a different sensitivity to economic growth for Islamic banks and for conventional banks. We use panel data from 525 banks covering 16 countries with dual banking systems spanning the period from 2008 to 2018. We find no difference in lending cyclicality: Islamic banks and conventional banks have both a procyclical lending behavior. Profitability is procyclical for Islamic banks but not for conventional banks. Our findings support the view that Islamic banking presence does not contribute to strengthen economic stability. JEL Codes: G21.

There has been a large expansion of foreign banks in Africa over the two decades with Pan-African banks playing a key role in this phenomenon. This paper questions if this development is beneficial for bank efficiency in African countries by investigating if Pan-African banks are more efficient than other types of foreign banks and domestic banks. We analyze the relation between ownership type and bank efficiency on a large sample of African banks covering 39 African countries over the period 2002-2015. We find that Pan-African banks are the most efficient banks in African banking industries. We explain this finding by the fact that these banks combine the best of both worlds: they have the global advantages of foreign banks and the home field advantages of domestic banks. They are then able to be more efficient than foreign banks from developed countries but also than domestic banks. This suggests that favoring entry of Pan-African banks would be beneficial to bank efficiency in Africa.JEL Codes: G21, G32, N27.