Author(s): Anas Azzabi, Younes Lahrichi
Bank performance is an important topic for both professionals and researchers. The purpose of this paper is to study the main determinants of commercial bank performance in emerging markets, specifically the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan region (MENAP, henceforth). To acquire a deeper understanding of this topic, our research uses the data of 56 stock-listed banks in 7 MENAP countries between 2015 and 2022. This study documents that bank size, operation inefficiency, the GDP growth rate, broad money growth rate, bank accounts’ growth rate, cashless payments, and the percentage of the population with access to the internet are the main determinants of commercial bank performance in the MENAP region. This paper aims to contribute to the literature surrounding the topic of commercial bank performance. It sheds light on the MENAP region banking sector, which has not been sufficiently studied. Our research includes data from before and after the COVID-19 recession to provide recent, relevant and holistic insight. Moreover, this study investigates the impact of digitalisation on commercial bank performance via multiple proxies