This paper investigates the cost efficiency of the Vietnamese banking industry. To obtain an appropriate estimate of cost efficiency, monotonicity and concavity constraints are incorporated in the estimation of the cost frontier using the Bayesian approach. Overall, the level of cost efficiency of Vietnam's banking sector is relatively high, around 87 percent. The findings reveal minor and insignificant differences in the cost efficiency of different groups of banks classified by ownership. Furthermore, throughout the estimation period, the industry faced a slight decrease in cost efficiency. This could be explained by increases in the costs of managing diverse activities, the enlargement of branch networks and the upgrading of the banking technology platform.

No abstract

This article analyses the cost and profit efficiencies of Australian banks over the period 1997–2009, including the impact of the recent global financial crisis. Using a stochastic frontier analysis, we find that Australian banks were relatively both cost‐ and profit‐efficient before the crisis. The crisis subsequently had an adverse effect on the profit efficiency of Australian banks, but had no significant impact on their cost efficiency. We also find that the major banks were more profit‐efficient, but less cost‐efficient, than their regional competitors. The article further investigates the factors determining differences in efficiency between Australian banks.

No abstract

No abstract