Foreign ownership and bank efficiency: evidence from Turkey

Abstract

This chapter examines the association between Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and efficiency of commercial banks in Turkey during the 2003-2010 period. First, the authors examine the technical efficiency of banks by applying the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and financial ratio analysis following the relevant literature. Then, they attempt to shed light on the relationship between FDI and bank efficiency applying a second stage regression analysis. The results indicate that banks that have received FDI are more efficient than others whilst there is no significant correlation among the FDI dummy and bank efficiency in Turkey. Moreover, the analysis of balance sheet ratios suggests that foreign investors target more profitable and larger banks in the sector to form partnerships. Thus, consistent with Berger et al. (2003), the authors propose that efficiency is a pre-condition rather than a result of FDI in the Turkish banking sector.