Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of diversification on profitability, profit efficiency and financial stability of Ghanaian banks. Design/methodology/approach The authors employed a panel regression technique on a data set of 32 banks from 2000 to 2015. The data envelopment analysis is used to compute profit efficiency scores with credit risk accounted for. Findings The results suggest that income diversification decreases profit, profit efficiency and financial stability. The impact on profit and stability is U-shaped. The impact of asset diversification was found to be insignificant. High competition reduces both profitability and profit efficiency which is inconsistent with the quiet-life hypothesis of Hicks (1935), but financial stability increases with competition. High investment in tangible assets is associated with poor performance. Non-banking financial institutions that later became universal banks are not financially stable. Competition, size, age, government ownership and leverage which are controlled for and a sensitivity analysis conducted also provided relevant insights. Practical implications The results are relevant in understanding the events in the Ghanaian banking industry in 2017–2018. Income diversification strategy is essential in determining the performance of banks. Management has to figure out the extent and scope of their diversification to benefit from the strategy. Originality/value The authors examined diversification from the view-point of both the income statement and statement of financial position while most prior studies focused on only one aspect. The study is one of the few studies that employed the risk-adjusted profit efficiency measure in Sub-Saharan Africa.
PurposeThe study examines the impact of risk on the profit efficiency and profitability of banks in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachData envelopment analysis was used to estimate profit efficiency scores and accounting ratios were used to measure profitability. The panel corrected standard error regression was used to assess the nexus using a dataset of 32 banks from 2000 to 2015.FindingsThe paper found that the Ghanaian banking industry exhibits a variable return to scale property, suggesting that average costs change with output size. Profit efficiency score for banks closer to the efficiency frontier is 61%. Credit risk is significant in enhancing profit efficiency and return on equity. Market risk is relevant in improving profit efficiency, return on asset and asset turnover. To drive profitability, bank managers have to be committed to effective liquidity risk, insolvency risk and capital risk management. Operational risk reduces shareholders' returns. The impact of size, age, stock exchange listing, cost efficiency and competition have are all been discussed extensively.Practical implicationsThe findings contribute to the knowledge on the risk-performance nexus and provide information that is valuable to academics, bankers and regulators for policy formulation. The findings are relevant to the newly established Financial Stability Council.Originality/valueThis paper appears to be among the premier attempts to examine the effect of various risk types identified in the Basel III framework on bank performance in Africa.
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