Analysis of Income and Profitability Indicators in Banking Sectors During the Period 1995 - 2009: Post-communist vs. OECD Countries

This article presents an analysis of income and profitability indicators for the banking sectors of six post-communist countries and compares them with a group of eighteen OECD countries without a “communist” past. The analysis focuses on five relative indicators (interest income/fees and commissions income; fees and commissions/bank assets; interest income/bank assets; profit/assets; fees and commissions/non-interest income), which are subsequently controlled with macroeconomic indicators (GDP, interest rate and inflation) for the period 1995 2009. The results of the econometric model corresponded with three out of the five assumptions made about the effects of post-communism. However, only the hypothesis that post-communist countries used their assets for higher net income from fees and commissions is significantly verified. Discrepancies were explained by x-inefficiencies on the cost side and a constant pressure on revenue stream diversification, which is in accordance with scholarly literature.