Measuring technical efficiency in traditional private banks using the DEA method - A comparative study on Syrian banks -

Abstract

The aim of this research is to measure the technical efficiency of the traditional private banks listed in the Damascus Securities Exchange (11 banks) by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), during the period (2010-2020), attempts to gauge the pure and scale technical efficiency using (CCR, BCC) methods, and identifying reference set, in addition to revealing the improvements specific to each bank that can be adopted to reach the degrees of efficiency. The main data source comes from the financial statements of the banks obtained from the Damascus Securities Exchange and the Securities Commission. The input-oriented model and the intermediation approach, were identifed four inputs: labor, capital and deposits provided by each of the customers and other banks, and two outputs: loans granted to customers and other banks.

The results indicate that the traditional private banks in Syria generally did not have technical efficiency, and the reason was due more to lack of scale efficiency compared to their pure efficiency. The strategies of BSF and Mashreq Bank were the most reference to other banks, moreover, Bank of Syria and Overseas was not a reference to any of the banks in all year. The results also show that Syrian banks have managed their deposits more effectively than to other inputs. Most banks have an efficiency in 2010, where as a weaker have an efficiency at the beginning of the crisis (2011-2012-2013-2014). However, it was better than the next few years (2015-2018-2019), and (2016) was the worst year for traditional private banks