This article measures the performance of listed commercial banks in Vietnam and identifies factors influencing their efficiency. The study follows a two-stage approach: (i) In the first stage, scale efficiency scores from 2016 to 2022 are assessed using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method; (ii) In the second stage, Tobit regression analyzes internal factors, macroeconomic conditions, and the impact of Covid-19. Key findings show that internal factors such as return on assets positively affect efficiency, while the ratio of equity to total capital has a negative and statistically significant impact. Bank size positively influences efficiency scores. Macroeconomic factors, including economic growth and inflation, were statistically insignificant. However, the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant negative effect on bank efficiency.

The study aimed to demonstrate that Palestinian banks have the potential to increase green financing by enhancing public sector understanding instead of focusing solely on the private sector, in addition to providing insights from employees of Palestinian banks listed on the Palestine Stock Exchange regarding the key challenges and opportunities related to green financing in Palestine specifically. It posed two central questions: What are the opportunities and challenges in implementing green finance in Palestine, and what level of government and private sector support exists? The study used the descriptive analytical approach, through interviews and surveys, the study targeted 10 heads of credit departments and a non-probability sample of 350 bank employees. The findings revealed a strong commitment from the government to promote green finance. At the same time, the private sector showed reluctance to engage in external investments. Key challenges included political instability and limited financial resources, though international aid was a significant opportunity to advance green finance. The study recommended increasing public awareness and fostering stronger coordination between the government and private sector, possibly incorporating competition from neighboring countries to further develop Palestine’s green finance strategy.

The objective of this paper is to assess the influence of various types of crises, including the Subprime, COVID-19, and political crises, on corporate governance attributes, regulations, and the association with bank risk. The consecutive occurrences of crises have significantly impacted the global economy, causing substantial disruptions across various facets of the international banking system. Our hypothesis posits that these crises not only influence governance characteristics and regulations but also impact their correlation with the risk and financial distress experienced by banks. Our study is conducted within the Tunisian context spanning from 2000 to 2021, utilizing a GMM regression on a dataset comprising 221 bank-year observations. Our findings indicate that crises have a discernible effect on the relationship between corporate governance and bank risk, as well as between regulation and bank risk. Our results are strong in a range of sensitivity checks, including the use of alternative proxies to measure the bank risks and corporate governance metrics.

Loans are a critical transmission channel for commercial banks as well as an important revenue source. Macroeconomic factors are not within the control of commercial banks, however, select factors are observed to have a direct impact on lending behaviour in studies around the world. This study examined the relationship between macroeconomic variables and the lending behaviour of banks in South Africa for the period ranging from 2001 to 2022. Quarterly time series data was employed using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model (ARDL). The empirical results of the paper revealed that there is a long-run relationship between the repurchase rate (repo rate), inflation, the real effective exchange rate (REER) and lending behaviour in South Africa. The REER and inflation were both found to have a positive relationship, whilst the repo rate had a negative relationship. In addition, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the activity rate and sovereign credit rating (SCR) changes returned insignificant results. Overall, these findings show that select macroeconomic factors do influence lending behaviour in South Africa. Furthermore, the results suggest that monetary policy decisions have a direct influential effect on lending and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has implemented their policies effectively.

The problem of the current study is to study the moderating role of Blockchain technology on the impact of the use of financial technology (FinTech) on the competitive advantage of Jordanian banks. Quantitative analysis is appropriate. The study population consists of (600) employees in three banks at Jordan (Arab Bank, Islamic Bank, Ahli Bank) with its branches in various governorates. A questionnaire was developed to collect study data and distributed electronically. The number of participants was (240) respondents. The study confirms that there is an impact of the mediating role of Blockchain technology in the impact of the use of financial technology (FinTech) on competitive advantage. The study recommends increasing spending on financial technology applications to improve banking services provided to customers, especially through electronic applications and technologies. The study also recommends rebuilding current banking systems using Blockchain technology, which will remove the central database structure and replace it with a decentralized data environment via the blockchain, thus reducing the risk of database hacking. Since transactions via blockchain technology are verified by every node of the chain, it will make transactions more secure which will make the world’s banking systems faster and more secure.

This article examines how financial technology determines bank performance in different EU countries. The answer to that question would allow banks to choose their development policy. The paper focuses  on the main and most popular bank services that are linked to financial technology. A SWOT analysis of FinTech is also presented to show the benefits and drawbacks of FinTech. FinTech-based services are very diverse and are provided by financial  firms and banks alike. This paper looks at the financial technology provided by banks: internet usage (internet banking), number of ATMs, credit transfers in a country, percentage of the population in a country holding a debit or credit card and whether that population has received or made a digital payment. Using the multi-criteria assessment methods of CRITIC and EDAS, the authors analysed and compared the countries of the European Union and the financial technology used in them. As a result of the application of these methods, the EU countries under consideration were ranked in terms of the use of financial technology. Subsequently, three banks from different countries with different levels of the use of financial technology were selected for the study. For these banks, financial ratios of profitability were calculated to characterise their performance. Correlation and pairwise regression analyses between the banks’ profitability ratios and financial technology were used to assess the relationship and influence between these ratios. The main conclusion of the study focuses on the extent to which financial technology influences the performance of banks in the selected countries. It is likely that further research will try to take into account the size of the country’s population when analysing all financial technologies. Researchers also needed to find out what influence financial technologies have on the such financial indicators as operational efficiency (costs), financial stability, and capital adequacy.