Bank Efficiency and Market Structure What Determines Banking Spreads in Armenia?

Despite far-reaching banking sector reforms and a prolonged period of macroeconomic stability and strong economic growth, financial intermediation in Armenia has lagged behind other transition countries, and interest rate spreads have remained higher than in most Central and Eastern European transit...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Floerkemeier, Holger
Other Authors: Dabla-Norris, Era
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C. International Monetary Fund 2007
Series:IMF Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: International Monetary Fund - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
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651 4 |a Armenia, Republic of 
653 |a Depository Institutions 
653 |a Banks and banking, Foreign 
653 |a Asset requirements 
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653 |a Capital adequacy requirements 
653 |a Banks 
653 |a Finance 
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653 |a Industries: Financial Services 
653 |a Micro Finance Institutions 
653 |a Financial Institutions and Services: Government Policy and Regulation 
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653 |a Loans 
653 |a Banks and Banking 
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653 |a Financial services law & regulation 
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520 |a Despite far-reaching banking sector reforms and a prolonged period of macroeconomic stability and strong economic growth, financial intermediation in Armenia has lagged behind other transition countries, and interest rate spreads have remained higher than in most Central and Eastern European transition countries. This paper examines the determinants of interest rate spreads and margins in Armenia using a bank-level panel dataset for the period 2002 to 2006. We find that bank-specific factors, such as bank size, liquidity, and market power, as well as the market structure within which banks operate, explain a large proportion of crossbank, cross-time variation in spreads and margins. The results suggest that there is a large potential to increase cost efficiency and competition in the banking system