[雙語翻譯]商業(yè)銀行外文翻譯--加納商業(yè)銀行的競爭力（英文）

1、African Development Review, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2011, 75–87The Competitiveness of Commercial Banks in GhanaNicholas Biekpe?Abstract: The paper empirically investigates the degree of bank competition and intermediation effici

2、ency in Ghana.The evidence obtained suggests a non-competitive market structure in the Ghanaian banking system, which hampers financial intermediation. The study also finds that Ghanaian banks are monopolistically compet

3、itive. It is argued that the structure, as well as the other markets characteristics, constitutes an indirect barrier to entry thereby shielding the large profits in the Ghanaian banking system. Further, it is argued tha

4、t policies that encourage and stimulate greater consolidation in the financial sector would go a long way to enhance competition among banks and improve efficiency and profitability.1. IntroductionThis paper seeks to exa

5、mine the nature and extent of competition in Ghana’s banking sector from 2000 to 2007 and compares that with earlier study by Buchs and Mathisen (2005) which covers the period from 1998 to 2003. The main essence of the s

6、tudy is to establish whether competition in the Ghanaian banking sector has changed significantly during the study period following the country’s extensive financial sector reforms including the recently introduced Finan

7、cial Sector Strategic Plan (FINSSIP).The study contributes to policy and existing knowledge on competition in the Ghanaian banking sector in several ways. Firstly,the competitive nature of banking business in Ghana helps

8、 them to strengthen their positions and, in the process, help stabilize the Ghanaian economy. Secondly, the study offers useful lessons to regulators on the kind of regulatory framework and other policy measures required

9、 to stimulate efficiency in the operations of financial institutions in the country. In terms of contribution to knowledge and methodological innovations, this study adds value to the study by Buch and Mathisen (2005) by

10、 considering the relative impact of aggregate local demand for bank services and differences in risk preferences across banks on output pricing of loans and revenue generation by banks in the Panzar–Rosse methodology. Th

11、ree other alternative approaches to analysis, namely the persistence of profitability (POP) approach, the conjectural variations (CV) method and the estimation of the Lerner Index are applied in the study to assess compe

12、tition in the Ghanaian banking industry.2. Financial Sector Reforms and Ghana’s Financial SectorPrior to the introduction of financial sector reforms in 1987, the formal financial system of the Ghanaian economy was domin

13、ated by state-owned banks which enjoyed monopoly over the entire banking sector in terms of their spread and operations. The only two foreign banks that existed at the time were Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered Bank

14、(World Bank, 1995). Prior to 1987, there were several financial service sector restrictions that served to undermine private sector confidence in the Ghanaian banking system as a whole. The banking sector had been batter

15、ed by exposure to wanton political influence, weak and incompetent management, insufficient capital, obsolete information and accounting systems and poor internal controls. In addition, the banks had a huge portfolio of

16、non-performing loans (NPL) and exposure to a few clients, mainly state-owned enterprises. The portfolios of the banks were not adequately diversified and, as a result, they attracted very few corporate and private client

17、s. As a result of the non-performing nature of the banks, broad-based reform measures were required, not only to restructure the financial sector, but also to encourage the development of the financial market by deepenin

18、g financial intermediation, creating new financial instruments for the people to invest in and establishing new financial institutions. The broad-based Structural Adjustment Programme was introduced by the Ghana governme

19、nt in 1986 to restore fiscal and monetary discipline and realign prices by removing all controls. As a component of the Structural Adjustment Programme, the Financial Sector LiberalizationNicholas Biekpe is at the UCT Gr

20、aduate School of Business and Africagrowth Institute, Cape Town, South Africa; e-mail: nicholas@africagrowth.com ?Research assistance by William Brafu-Insaidoo is gratefully acknowledged.C ? 2011 The Author. African Deve

21、lopment Review C ? 2011 African Development Bank. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. 75Competitiveness of Commercial Banks in Ghana

22、77strengthening of the central bank’s supervisory capabilities and the enactment of the Insurance Act of 2005. Another key policy measure has been the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2007. This new act prov

23、ides a framework for criminalizing money laundering and establishes a Financial Intelligence Centre. It also facilitates the easing of restrictions on the acquisition of capital market instruments by both residents and n

24、on-residents. One of the outcomes from the reform measures have been the establishment of many bank and non-bank financial institutions. From the pre-liberalization era of two foreign and five state-owned banks with virt

25、ually no non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), the sector has widened substantially. Currently the financial sector of Ghana is made up of 23 banking institutions, 126 rural banks and 41 NBFIs (Bank of Ghana Annual Re

26、port 2007). Of the 23 banking institutions, 22 fall under the category of class 1 banking (providing universal banking businesses) while one foreign-owned bank provides general banking services. Banks under the class 1 c

27、ategory have a licence limiting them to enter into only domestic banking businesses while those which fall under the category of general banking services have the licence to enter into all forms of banking including dome

28、stic and international banking involving both residents and non-residents clients. Of the 41 non-bank financial institutions, there are 21 finance companies, 14 savings, loans companies and 4 leasing companies, 1 discoun

29、t house and 1 mortgage finance company.3. A Review of the ModelsLiterature of financial competitiveness has shown that the Panzar–Rosse (H-statistic) test model is reasonably robust and widely applied to assess the degre

30、e of competitiveness in the financial services sector for developing and developed economies. A study on Ghana by Buchs and Mathisen (2005) used the Panzar–Rosse framework in determining the degree of competition in the

31、Ghanaian banking sector. In their study, two reduced-form revenue equations are estimated; one for total (including interest) revenue scaled using total assets and the other for unscaled total (including interest) revenu

32、e. The explanatory variables used for this study are the three-dimensional vector of factor prices; namely the ratio of personnel expenses over total loans and deposits, the ratio of interest expense over total deposits,

33、 and the ratio of other operating and administrative expenses over fixed assets. Other explanatory variables representing the exogenous and bank-specific variables include total assets, which is the scale variable and de

34、picts size of banks, the risk factors, namely the ratio of past due loans to total loans and the ratio of total loans to total assets and dummies for types of ownership. Treasury bill rates and inflation are used to capt

35、ure the impact of the macroeconomic environment. The findings from the regression analysis by Buchs and Mathisen (2005) indicate that the Ghanaian banking industry is characterized by monopolistic competition based on th

36、e Panzar–Rosse categorization with an average H-statistic of 0.56. Their results also indicate that the unit price of labour (or personnel costs), the unit cost of funds (or cost of capital) and the scale variable (or si

37、ze) are major determinants of interest and total revenue of banks in Ghana. The loan ratio is found to be important in explaining total revenue but unimportant for explaining interest revenue, which is an indication of l

38、oan recipients paying a sizeable portion of bank commissions and fees. Foreign-owned banks are also found to be the most competitive in generating both interest and non-interest income and also the most profitable. The s

39、tudy also revealed that interest rates (both nominal and real) play a very crucial role in explaining both total and interest revenues of banks in Ghana. This current study extends the observation period used in Buchs an

40、d Mathisen (2005) by covering the period 2001 to 2007. The Panzar–Rosse method has been used in studies by Prasad and Ghosh (2007) for India; Drummond et al. (2007) for Italy; Majid et al. (2007), Maudos and Solis (2007)

41、 for Mexico; and Hauner and Peiris (2005) for Uganda. For most of these studies, focus has been on the banking sector. Most of the studies provide evidence of existence of monopolistic competition in the banking sector o

42、f countries being studied. Among the major determinants of bank revenues and output pricing of loans identified in these studies are total equity to total assets, non-performing loans to total customer loans and total de

43、posits to assets ratio. The equity to assets ratio is used to account for the leverage reflecting differences in the risk appetite or preference across banks. The non-performing loans ratio is also introduced as a risk m

44、easure. Total deposits ratio is used to denote local aggregate demand for bank services. Most of the studies also find evidence of the existence of monopolistic competition in the banking sectors of developing economies,

45、 with the degree of competition increasing overtime with financial sector reforms. There is also evidence of increasing competition in the financial sector, following sector reforms in these studies. Other approaches use

46、d in assessing the competitiveness of the financial services sector found in the literature include the structure-conduct-performance model, the persistence of profitability (POP) model and the conjectural variation (CV)

47、 methodology. However, not many empirical studies have been done on assessing the competitiveness of the financial services sector based on these other approaches. Empirical studies, based on the POP model, include Kapla

48、n and Celik (2008), Mueller (1990), Glen et al. (2001), Maruyana and Odgari (2002), Glen et al. (2003) and Yurtoglu (2004). In these studies, competition is perceived as a dynamic process in which the forces of entry and

49、 exit erode profits in the long run. An intensive competition in one period means that the above average profits get eroded in the subsequent periods. If not, firms that earn more than average profits will be capable of