Credit Risk Management, Technical Efficiency, and Financial Performance of Indian Banking Sector: A Mediation Analysis.

The study aims to capture the mediating effect of technical efficiency on the relationship between credit risk and financial performance in the Indian banking sector. This paper is based on secondary data extracted from the financial reports of commercial banks operating in India for the year 2021-22. Simple mediation analysis is used to analyze the data. The technique of data envelopment analysis (DEA) was deployed to calculate technical efficiency score. The findings show that credit risk has a negative and significant relationship with both financial performance and technical efficiency when taken alone as an independent variable. Overall, the results show that technical efficiency fully mediates the relationship between credit risk and banks' profitability. The mediating effect suggests that scheduled commercial banks operating in India can achieve both technical efficiency and good financial performance through vigilant supervision of credit risk. With specific reference to India, such empirical work showing the mediating effect of technical efficiency on financial performance and credit risk has not been taken up before. The findings of the study are expected to provide a better understanding of the role of managing nonperforming assets in determining technical efficiency and financial performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]