Empirical Evidence on Bank Market Power, Business Models, Stability and Performance in the Emerging Economies

Abstract

This paper studies the nexus between market power and business models in the banking industry. Business models are represented by non-interest income and non-deposit short-term funding share. We also examine the impact of bank business models on banking stability and performance. Using a sample comprising six ASEAN country banking sectors from 2002 to 2015, we find that banks with a strong capital base but lower net interest margin perform better in translating their market power into generating non-traditional income as alternative sources of revenues. Our findings also show that the implementation of the Basel 2 Accord encourages banks to create non-interest income from trading and derivatives activities as well as from other non-interest income. We also document that banks with higher market power tend to increase non-deposit short-term funding in their financing mix. In the evaluation of banking stability, our results suggest that banks with greater non-traditional income are associated with less overall banking risk. Moreover, non-traditional incomes also contribute to better bank performance.

Keywords: lerner index, market power, bank business model, bank stability

JEL Classification: G21, G24, G33