245-266

• Σταϊκούρας, Χρήστος
• Mamatzakis, Emmanuel C.
• Κουτσοµανώλη - Φιλιππάκη, Αναστασία

This paper examines the operating performance of the South Eastern European (SEE) banking industry over the period 1998-2003. To this end, we investigate the empirical relationship between operating expenses and bank, market and country specific characteristics. Operating performance is found to be positively related to loan quality and the asset size or the bank’s market share, and negatively related to liquidity, the loan ratio and bank’s age.

• Economics and Business
• Computer and information sciences

• Finance
• Statistics

South Eastern European banking sectors, operating performance, personnel expenses, administrative expenses, bank structure

Περιέχει σημειώσεις, πίνακες και βιβλιογραφία, The authors wish to thank the anonymous referee, and the participants of the Emerging Markets Finance Conference (Cass Business School, London, UK, May 5-6, 2005), for their valuable comments and helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this paper and Mr. Panagiotis Varlagas for excellent research assistant. The paper is co-funded by the European Social Fund & National Resources – EPEAEK II - PYTHAGORAS., JEL Classification: D24, G21, L25