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The literature has examined the relationship between financial inclusion and financial stability, but no studies have examined the relationship between financial inclusion and financial crisis. This study examines the effect of financial inclusion on financial crisis using data from 28 countries from 2006 to 2017. Three stylised facts were established based on real‐world observation. One, the level of financial inclusion, in terms of number of bank depositors, decreases during domestic financial crisis. Two, the level of financial inclusion, in terms of ATM penetration, does not decrease during global and domestic financial crises. Three, the level of financial inclusion, in terms of number of bank branch, decreases during global and domestic financial crises and the contraction is stronger during a domestic financial crisis. Using the panel regression, logit and probit regression estimation methods, the empirical results show that low levels of financial inclusion, measured by fewer bank depositors and fewer bank branches, increase the likelihood that a financial crisis will occur. Low levels of financial inclusion, measured by fewer bank depositors, increase the likelihood that a financial crisis will occur in low financial‐inclusion countries. In contrast, greater ATM penetration increases the likelihood that a financial crisis will occur in low financial‐inclusion countries. The interaction analyses show that all indices of financial inclusion have a joint positive impact on financial crisis, implying that high levels of financial inclusion increases the likelihood that a financial crisis will occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, more than 11,000 U.S. counties have been impacted by natural disasters. This study investigates how banks and their depositors respond to such events using a difference-in-difference-in-differences (DDD) methodology combined with coarsened exact matching (CEM). Analyzing 1.3 million observations from 1999 to 2017, we find that natural disasters lead to a significant increase in deposit rates but do not affect the volume of deposits. Our findings suggest that banks raise deposit rates to counteract the potential withdrawal of funds, thereby maintaining stable deposit levels. This research provides new insights into the causal dynamics of deposit supply and demand in the face of natural disasters.

Chinese banks have been building an extensive network of branches and subsidiaries across the European Union, which they govern from their European headquarters in Luxembourg. This striking observation guides this paper's research questions: Why do Chinese banks create such branch-cum-subsidiary structures across the EU, and why do they do it in Luxembourg? The paper dissects forensically these financial structures and mechanisms forged through the co-design of Luxembourg's legal-business environment and Chinese banks' internationalization strategies. We argue that Chinese banks facilitate Chinese FDI, and that this function determines the particular branch-cum-subsidiary structure of Chinese banks in the EU. It is a unique feature impossible to establish outside the EU. Chinese state-owned banks in Luxembourg are thus important, yet analytically widely neglected actors in the formation of global financial networks (GFNs). This research is particularly significant when considering the intensifying integration of the emerging Chinese market into global finance and, in particular, into the EU banking union. Empirical findings suggest that Chinese banks in Luxembourg use the specific branch-cum-subsidiary structures to (i) finance both their large Chinese and European corporate clients, which (ii) allows Chinese banks to circumvent specific regulatory and operational constraints in other EU member states, especially when (iii) serving Chinese corporations in their FDI to the EU. The internationalizing Chinese bank networks in the EU can thus be defined as FDI-oriented by legal and strategic design. This research highlights their constituent features and the resulting capabilities of GFNs that affect regional investment activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing cash reserves and providing cash services is one of the main missions of banks, and optimal management of cash to meet the needs of customers while complying with social responsibilities is one of the important challenges in the banking industry. In order to provide a solution, in the current research, we have presented a two-objective mathematical model with a combined approach of cost minimization and action maximization to the social responsibilities of the sample branches of a commercial bank in cash logistics. In order to get better results, first, withdrawal and receipt of customers' cash were predicted using the SARIMAX statistical method and LSTM recurrent neural network, and by comparing the results, the LSTM method was chosen as the superior method with an acceptable level of accuracy. Then, by placing the predicted values in the optimization model, the optimal values of the inventory variables and the amount and time of cash movement of the branches were determined in the cash logistics, which resulted in a significant reduction of the bank's costs in providing cash services and accountability. Complete with the demand for cash from customers, the social responsibilities of the bank were optimized in the cash transfer mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract As global warming's impact on humanity surpasses initial predictions, numerous countries confront heightened risks associated with escalating urban carbon footprints. Concurrently, digital finance has flourished, propelled by advancements in digital technology. This convergence underscores the urgency of exploring digital finance's role in mitigating urban carbon footprint pressures. This study analyzes data spanning 277 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020, yielding several key findings: Firstly, we developed a dataset detailing the carbon footprint pressures in these cities, revealing that variations in these pressures predominantly correlate with economic growth. Secondly, our analysis indicates that digital finance has a significant impact on reducing urban carbon footprint pressures, through mechanisms such as reducing the number of physical bank branches and enhancing residents' environmental awareness. Thirdly, the study identifies that the efficacy of digital finance in reducing carbon footprint pressures varies according to factors like sunshine duration and geographic location. The insights from this research aim to contribute substantively to strategies for sustainable urban development.

As global warming's impact on humanity surpasses initial predictions, numerous countries confront heightened risks associated with escalating urban carbon footprints. Concurrently, digital finance has flourished, propelled by advancements in digital technology. This convergence underscores the urgency of exploring digital finance's role in mitigating urban carbon footprint pressures. This study analyzes data spanning 277 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020, yielding several key findings: Firstly, we developed a dataset detailing the carbon footprint pressures in these cities, revealing that variations in these pressures predominantly correlate with economic growth. Secondly, our analysis indicates that digital finance has a significant impact on reducing urban carbon footprint pressures, through mechanisms such as reducing the number of physical bank branches and enhancing residents' environmental awareness. Thirdly, the study identifies that the efficacy of digital finance in reducing carbon footprint pressures varies according to factors like sunshine duration and geographic location. The insights from this research aim to contribute substantively to strategies for sustainable urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the banking sector in Haryana from 2007 to 2022.

The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the banking sector in Haryana from 2007 to 2022. The study is based on secondary data. The number of bank branches, deposits, and credits in the state are just a few economic indicators covered in the Statistical Abstract of Haryana. The compound growth rate is calculated to assess the growth of a bank. The findings reveal a consistent rising trend in bank branches, credit and deposits of commercial banks. Notable trends include increasing bank branches, a surge in deposits and robust credit growth, indicating a dynamic and thriving banking sector. The Credit-Deposit ratio gradually increased from 2007 to 2011, reaching a peak in 2012 at 102.10%. The overall number of bank offices has increased dramatically due to the state's growing financial sector. The steady expansion in bank branches indicates a sustained effort to improve accessibility and financial inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) model has been applied for evaluating bank branches and recognizing efficient and inefficient branches can help bank managers to provide appropriate strategies to improve the inefficient branches' performance. Conventional DEA models are based on the 'black box' approach. However, the process of providing services in banks is made up of interactive and interdependent processes. Additionally, some managers tend to incorporate their preferences in evaluation process. In this paper, best worst method (BWM) is used for incorporating decision maker (DM) preferences in two‐stage DEA model. First, BWM model is applied to obtain the weights of inputs, intermediate measures and outputs based on DM's judgement. Second, generated weights are imposed on two‐stage DEA model as additional constraints and a novel bi‐objective BWM‐two stage DEA model is introduced. Finally, the proposed bi‐objective BWM‐two stage DEA model is solved using min‐max approach. To illustrate the capability of proposed model, 45 Agricultural Bank (Agribank) branches in West Azerbaijan province of Iran are evaluated. The branches' processes are considered as two stages 'production' and 'profitability' and efficiency of branches are calculated in each stage. According to the efficiencies of each sub‐stage, branches are divided to four groups and recommendations are made for each group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study conducted an empirical analysis on the effects of monetary policy on financial inclusion in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. The study employed time series research design and data were collected from the secondary source via CBN statistical bulletin. The study used autoregressive distance lag(ARDL) to achieve the objective of the study. The findings indicated that lending rate has a negative and insignificant effect on number of bank branches; money supply has a positive effect but insignificant effect on credit to SMEs; and liquidity ratio has a positive but insignificant effect on bank demand deposit. Therefore, the study concluded that monetary policy does not have significant effect on financial inclusion in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. The study recommended that Central Bank of Nigeria as a monetary authority should redirect and redesign its monetary policy tools towards determining the financial inclusion system in the country in order to capture citizens that are financial excluded.

Income inequality has long been an important issue in development economics. Applying international data from 119 countries between 2004 and 2018, this study discusses the relationship between the accessibility of financial services and income inequality. Using the density of the bank branch network to represent the accessibility of financial services, we discover that income inequality is negatively related to the accessibility of financial services, especially in less developed countries and regions. In this nexus, the poverty ratio serves as an intermediary variable. The significance of the nexus is weaker in countries where fintech is more popularized, indicating the substitution effect between fintech and traditional banking services. Nevertheless, the substitution effect is limited, and bank branches will keep playing an important role in delivering financial services. For countries with inadequate banking services, bank branches should be increased to encourage residents to participate in the financial system, while it is no longer necessary to add a large number of branches in countries where fintech has been popularized. Faced with the trend of financial digitalization and the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, banks should launch more online services and increase intelligent machines in the branches. By doing so, financial services are more resilient to social changes, so as to alleviate the inequality of income distribution in the long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the US bank market has been exposed to several waves of mergers, resulting in concerns about branch presence and consumer access to financial services. This paper examines the effects of bank mergers on branch density in the period 2000–2020. To do so, we use panel regressions and matching techniques at the census tract level to study the impact of inter- and intrastate mergers before and after the Great Recession of 2007. To generate plausible exogenous variation for mergers, our analysis focuses on transactions involving large entities, and we consider the within-tract variation in exposure to mergers. A comparison of exposed and unexposed tracts shows that in the period under study each merger reduced branch density by around 3%. Moreover, interstate mergers reduced branch density at the tract level across the whole period but had an expansionary effect on the number of branches at the county level before the crisis. Intrastate mergers, in contrast, had a consolidation effect across the whole period, an impact that was more intense in rural tracts and in tracts where merging entities operated overlapping branch networks. Finally, we show that the reduction of bank branches was stronger in tracts with a relatively higher penetration of broadband Internet services, but we find no evidence that the adoption of FinTech services intensified branch closures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, due in part to the global economic crisis, a significant part of the bank branches have been closed in the European banking system, but in Hungary this proportion has been significantly higher than the European average. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to explore what aspects of commercial banks are taken into account when deciding where to be present within bank branches. This will also reveal the spatial dimension of public access to financial services. The present study seeks to answer the question of which socio-economic factors and in what form they affect the spatial structure of bank branches. The settlement-level examination can also provide additional indication of which settlements may be affected by further bank branch closures. Linear regression based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) parameter estimation was used to explore the factors influencing the location of bank branches. In addition, the possible clustering of bank branches was observed, i.e., whether spatial autocorrelation was present at certain stages of the analysis. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) was also estimated in the present study. Based on the results of the research, the resident population, the proportion of enterprises per capita, the average income, the number of neighbouring bank branches and the type of settlement all proved to be significant factors that may encourage decision-makers to establish a bank branch.

• Role of cash for underground economy is analyzed with a unique dataset for Italy. • An increase in cash use translates into a higher share of shadow value added. • Rising the maximum threshold for cash transactions shifts the same share upwards. • Stricter limits on cash use are an effective instrument to tackle tax evasion. This paper explores the role of cash usage in feeding the underground economy by using a unique dataset that combines, at province level, official estimates of Italian firms' underreporting with data on cash transactions drawn from the aggregate anti-money laundering reports filed to the Italian Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) by banks. In order to derive causal evidence, we apply two different econometric strategies: an instrumental variable approach and a difference-in-difference approach, which exploits the change in the maximum threshold for cash transactions introduced in 2016, thereby providing a measure of the effect of such policy on tax evasion. We find that an increase in cash usage translates, other things being equal, into a higher level of underreporting by firms, and that raising the cash threshold in 2016 – a measure motivated by the objective of boosting spending – had the side effect of leading to a larger underground economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study conducted an empirical analysis on the effects of monetary policy on financial inclusion in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. The study employed time series research design and data were collected from the secondary source via CBN statistical bulletin. The study used autoregressive distance lag(ARDL) to achieve the objective of the study. The findings indicated that lending rate has a negative and insignificant effect on number of bank branches; money supply has a positive effect but insignificant effect on credit to SMEs; and liquidity ratio has a positive but insignificant effect on bank demand deposit. Therefore, the study concluded that monetary policy does not have significant effect on financial inclusion in Nigeria from 1985 to 2019. The study recommended that Central Bank of Nigeria as a monetary authority should redirect and redesign its monetary policy tools towards determining the financial inclusion system in the country in order to capture citizens that are financial excluded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer loyalty is significantly dependent on customer satisfaction with the services provided. Therefore, customer satisfaction in offline services such as e -banking, offline account opening, etc. can be considered as an effective competitive strategy, especially in the current situation due to Corona virus pandemic. In this study, first, by considering the appropriate loyalty codes at the level of bank branches, we define the appropriate weight constraints of the type of constraint zone constraints of the first type and add them to the basic model of data envelopment analysis. The new size obtained from this mathematical model is due to the effect of loyalty constraints and will have more resolution than the basic model. The loyalty factor of each branch is then defined as the ratio of the size of the new model to the base model, which will be a number between zero and one. Then, the proposed model is implemented in a case study consisting of 195 branches of the Housing Bank and the results of the model are analyzed. The results show that the loyalty factor is directly related to the quality of face -to -face services and a new measure of efficiency is obtained to monitor customer loyalty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-2000s, banks competed for leadership in the growth of new points of sale of services. Today, the positive for the bank is the closure of branches with a minimum physical presence in the administrative territory, while without reducing the number of clients. The purpose of the article is to analyze the situation in Ukraine on reforming network banks regarding their presence outside the head office, the possibility of maintaining branches in the structure of the bank (points of sale). The dynamics of the share of cash and non-cash transactions carried out by bank customers has been assessed. It was revealed that the expansion of the payment infrastructure and the network where payment cards are used affects the further fate of bank branches. During the quarantine period, under the influence of digitalization, the physical workload of on banks branches decreased due to the fact that today they (branches) are not the only points of sale of banking services. At the same time, most of the new functions arising from the digitalization of banking processes can be performed by the central offices of the bank. The popularity of internet acquiring is growing rapidly, the advantages of which are the speed of the operation, the absence of the need for the physical use of the payment card itself, the absence of the need for a POS terminal in the store, the possibility of making payments in 24/7 mode. The current trends in banking activity indicate that face-to-display and display-to-display communication will completely replace the modern understanding of banks. In the future, there will be new ways to store your own resources, for example, storage in “cloud technologies”; plastic cards will physically disappear, which will be replaced by tokens; cash will remain at a minimum level (within 2-5% of the amount of non-cash payments), which will be dealt with by SIT companies; lending will switch to P2P mode.

This paper analyses the relationship between performance assessment methods used by banks to evaluate their branches and the corresponding time‐varying cost efficiency. To do this, we employ a panel data framework and consider bank branches' latent heterogeneity, which might arise from unobserved non‐systematic management problems. Our analysis is based on monthly data obtained from the branches of a large commercial bank operating in Spain during the period 2013–2014. The results indicate that there is unobserved heterogeneity and time‐varying cost efficiency in the bank branches, and that inefficiency scores are low, at 1–15%. Time‐varying cost efficiencies are positively associated with measures of the volume of business (the productivity based on value achieved by the branch) and negatively associated with the surface area of the branch and with time. However, no relation was found regarding balance sheet and profit and loss statements (i.e., negative deviations from gross income targets). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Al-Anbar University Journal of Economic & Administration Sciences is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Banks are service organizations having close relationship with their customer by providing them financial services. Since customers are the most valuable sources for any bank, there is no doubt that the profitability of these financial organizations is highly related to the analysis of issues related to the customer satisfaction. Banks are constantly paying special attention to service quality as the most important principle of payments. Queue length and waiting time are two important factors that affect on the customer's perception of service quality. Among the various useful methods for evaluating and analyzing systems in steady states and also considering probabilistic date, it is shown that simulation has a high capability in modeling and evaluating such circumstances. Simulation is a suitable tool for the analysis of any queuing systems. The main aim of this paper is to simulating service processes of the bank branches and offer scenarios to improve existing processes toward customer satisfaction. To do this, after the identification of different service processes in the bank, the bottlenecks are identified and scenarios are offered to overcome these bottlenecks. The results show that proposed method can highly increase the speed and efficiency of services provided by the bank and achieve customer satisfaction.

Copyright of European Mirror / Európai Tükör is the property of National University of Public Service and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the past two decades, there has been a decrease in the number of banks in Russia, both as a result of concentration and consolidation processes in the global banking industry and of the banking sector rehabilitation policy pursued by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. As a result, banking activities in the country are now carried out mainly by banks with headquarters in the capital. The article discusses the consequences of such geographic centralization of the Russian banking sector in terms of providing regions with a sufficient number of bank branches. The aim of the study is to assess the impact of distance on banks' ability to maintain their presence in regions, as well as to identify differences in this regard between different categories of banks, including the composition of owners, location of the head office, and size of the bank. The impact of distances on the number of bank offices in regions at the end of 2018, according to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, is assessed using the Poisson regression method for interregional trade gravity models. The results showed that the largest banks in their office location strategy are guided by the characteristics of locales, regardless of distance from the bank's head office. At the same time, the composition of a bank's owners has little effect, although in fact, financial accessibility and inclusion in the country are to a large extent provided by the largest state-owned banks. The office location strategy is also linked to the location of the bank's head office in the capital. The remaining regional banks are more likely to operate locally; for them the distance factor in the formation of a branch network is important. Despite banking licensing reform in 2018, the number of banks continues to decline and the level of competition and diversity in this sphere in Russian regions is still debatable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-2000s, banks competed for leadership in the growth of new points of sale of services. Today, the positive for the bank is the closure of branches with a minimum physical presence in the administrative territory, while without reducing the number of clients. The purpose of the article is to analyze the situation in Ukraine on reforming network banks regarding their presence outside the head office, the possibility of maintaining branches in the structure of the bank (points of sale). The dynamics of the share of cash and non-cash transactions carried out by bank customers has been assessed. It was revealed that the expansion of the payment infrastructure and the network where payment cards are used affects the further fate of bank branches. During the quarantine period, under the influence of digitalization, the physical workload of on banks branches decreased due to the fact that today they (branches) are not the only points of sale of banking services. At the same time, most of the new functions arising from the digitalization of banking processes can be performed by the central offices of the bank. The popularity of internet acquiring is growing rapidly, the advantages of which are the speed of the operation, the absence of the need for the physical use of the payment card itself, the absence of the need for a POS terminal in the store, the possibility of making payments in 24/7 mode. The current trends in banking activity indicate that face-to-display and display-to-display communication will completely replace the modern understanding of banks. In the future, there will be new ways to store your own resources, for example, storage in "cloud technologies"; plastic cards will physically disappear, which will be replaced by tokens; cash will remain at a minimum level (within 2-5% of the amount of non-cash payments), which will be dealt with by SIT companies; lending will switch to P2P mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Management Studies is the property of Czestochowa University of Technology, Faculty of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Spanish Journal of Finance & Accounting / Revista Espanola de Financiacion y Contabilidad is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We examine investment in bank branches on the Indian subcontinent in 1939 and 1946. In 1947, the states of India and Pakistan were created from the erstwhile colony of British India. Partition was destabilizing to both economies. We use branch expansion as a proxy for entrepreneur's pre‐partition predictions of the future of these regions. Our results indicate there were no premonitions of economic dislocation. Banks tended to deepen their presence in regions which were already developed. But controlling for the level of 1931 development, branch placement was highest in exactly those regions, Bengal and the Punjab, which were to experience the greatest negative consequences from political division. After 1947, multiple banks failed; most failing banks were registered in the Punjab or Bengal region. In United India, businessmen saw as much promise in regions which were to become Pakistan as in regions which were to become India. After partition, the Pakistan regions were immediately more economically fragile. This event provides a general lesson. Economic integration had intensified over the years of British rule. The abrupt stop to integration harmed especially the smaller, less diversified region. Politicians should be wary of politically dividing regions which have evolved to function as integrated economic units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the direct and indirect impacts of natural disasters on deposit rates of U.S. bank branches from 2008 to 2017. We capture the indirect impact by the spatial spillover effects of disasters, from branches directly exposed to such disasters to neighboring branches. We theoretically motivate our spatial framework by local competition for deposits among branches and provide empirical evidence consistent with this model. We find that indirect effects contribute to at least two-thirds of the total impact for deposit rate-setting branches. Rate-setting branches in affected counties, on average, raise their deposit rates on 12-month CDs by 1.5 basis points directly due to the disaster shock. However, there is an additional indirect increase of 2.7 – 4.3 basis points for all rate-setting branches, including those in adjacent but unaffected counties, due to the local geographical competition for deposits. We also confirm that the spillover effect occurs among branches across counties via an overlooked social connectedness. Moreover, and importantly, online and one-county banks are more likely to rely on the information channel embedded in the social connectedness effect in response to natural disasters. Branches in less concentrated local markets also respond more to the nature disaster and rate adjustments of neighboring branches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays banks, credit and financial institutions are trying to increase profits, reduce costs, compete with rivals, attract customers and increase productivity. One of the factors that contributes to the implementation of these strategies is the optimum locations of branches. Locating the new branches of Mehr Eghtesad bank in the region 1 in Tehran city is the aim of this research. Since the focus of service centers such as banks is on maximal or full service to customers, among the all the covering models, Maximal Covering Location model is chosen as the best option to locate the new bank branches. To this end, related literature about locating bank branches, Geographical Information system (GIS) and maximal covering location problem (MCLP) examined. Then, through library Studies and interviewing with managers and experts, the researcher chose effective criteria and sub criteria for locating bank branches. The weights of criteria and sub criteria were determined through filling the questionnaires by managers. GIS used to extract some input data for the model and weighted maximal covering model (MCLM) with partial covering used to choose the best locations. Mathematical programming model formulated with 363 binary variables, 122 constraints, 121 demand areas, 121 potential points, the 1000 m buffer, α = 0.75, b = 50%, θ = 2 and s= 8 & 30 branches (with two different scenarios) and solved with GAMS optimization software. It is clear that by solving the first scenario, eight suitable locations and second scenario thirty suitable locations to open new branches will be generated.

In this study, we examine the impact of the 2008 Global Crisis on “access to finance” in high-income OECD, high-income non-OECD, middle-income, and low-income countries. We use three measures of access to finance. These are “Number of bank branches per 100,000 adults”, “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)”, and “Market capitalization outside of top 10 largest companies to total market capitalization (%)”. During the run-up to the crisis and immediately after the crisis, we do not find any significant change in any of the three “access to finance” measures. We find that, during the crisis, only middle-income countries were affected significantly. These countries were affected in only one of the measures which is “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)”. This measure went up and this change is marginally significant. We conclude that the global crisis only affected “access to finance” in middle-income countries.

At the present time, firms especially banks and finance and credit institutions to compete in the business world are seeking for maximal customer covering, reducing costs and increasing profit and efficiency. For this purpose, they are looking for determining and choosing the best location to start economic activity with scientific methods. This study aimed to locate Mehr Eghtesad bank branches in the region 1 in Tehran city, using geographic information system and the weighted maximal covering model. First, through reviewing the literature and interviews with experts the criteria and sub-criteria affecting the location of bank branches were identified. After that, two questionnaires were prepared and distributed between the bank's Managers then the weights of criteria and sub-criteria were determined based on the Best-Worst Method. Geographic Information System was used to determine potential points that are inputs of the weighted maximal covering model. In the end, the weighted maximal covering model was solved in MATLAB and the best locations for opening the new branches were identified.

In this study, we examine the relation between countries’ income levels and their residents’ and companies’ access to finance. First, we look at how OECD membership affects access to finance. For this purpose, we compare access to finance measures in high-income OECD-member countries and in high-income non-OECD-member countries. We find that residents of high-income OECD-member countries tend to have better access to finance when compared to residents of high-income non-OECD-member countries (in 3 out of 4 measures). We find no significant difference between the two groups in terms of companies’ access to finance. Next, we examine how income level of countries affect access to finance. We compare high-income countries to low- and middle-income countries in terms of “access to finance”. Our results show that individuals in high-income countries have better access to finance when compared to individuals in low- and middle-income countries. Interestingly, our results show that value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%) is higher for high-income countries compared to low- and middle-income countries. This finding suggests that, in high-income countries, market value tends to be more concentrated in a few large companies.

This paper analyzes whether the density of bank branches is affecting income inequality in the Spanish provinces in the post-crisis years (2015–2019). The results show a non-significant impact for the analyzed period, and hold for a variety of scenarios, estimation methods and different types of bank. Then, although most previous literature suggests that bank branches reduce inequality, especially in advanced economies, that finding does not hold for the Spanish case. The advance of digitalization and the emergence of new forms of banking are potential candidates that might explain our results. • We analyze the effect of the density of bank branches on income inequality. • The Spanish provinces during the period 2015–2019 are used as a laboratory. • The results suggest that bank branch density has no effect on income inequality. • The results hold for different types of bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine the impact of the 2008 Global Crisis on access to finance. We use three measures of access to finance: “Number of bank branches per 100,000 adults”, “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)”, and “Market capitalization outside of top 10 largest companies to total market capitalization (%)”. We use non-parametric tests in our analyses. Our results show that in the run-up to the crisis and after the crisis, there was no significant change in any of these three measures. However, during the crisis period, we find that “Value traded of top 10 traded companies to total value traded (%)” has gone up and this change is marginally significant. We do not find any impact on the other two measures during the crisis. We conclude that the global crisis only had a marginally significant impact on access to finance.

The paper is a part of an on-going study of the performance assessment of Slovak bank branches. With aim to assess better the performance of the bank branches from different angles, the efficiency-profitability managerial decision‑making matrices is used. The efficiency analysis adopts the SBM non-oriented model under the standpoint of production approach. Efficiency scores together with the profit indicators of each bank branch enable to gain a comprehensive picture of network performance. DEA results suggest that there is considerable space for an improvement of the bank branches efficiency. Moreover, between the efficiency and the profitability a medium correlation was found.

In the current era, the amazing changes in the management knowledge necessitate the existence of measurement systems so much so that the absence of a measurement system in the different dimensions of an organization such measurement of the use facilities and resources, personnel, goals and strategies is considered one of the signs of organization illness. There are different techniques for performance measurement, each of which has strong and weak points. In the present paper, a model for measuring the performance of the bank branches by combining “balance score card” with “fuzzy data envelopment analysis”. The statistical population includes all the branches of Sepah Bank of Tabriz totaling 42. The efficiency measurement indices have been specified through the use of balanced scorecard and with regard to the research literature. For data collection, a researcher – devised questionnaire was used after its validity and reliability had been confirmed. Data envelopment analysis was applied for data analysis. The results show that 10 branches out of the 42 around Tabriz are specified as strongly efficient, 27 as efficient, and the remaining 5 branches as inefficient.