Regional Comparisons of Banking Performance in South Africa

Many economic agents are interested in measuring the performance of banks. Investors, depositors, borrowers and regulators are all interested in measuring liquidity, deposit security, after-tax profitability and many other aspects of bank performance. Although different economic agents may have different motivations for measuring bank performance, most use accounting and other data to calculate a reasonably standard set of simple statistics which summarise performance at a single point in time, or over time. Most summary measures of bank performance are calculated as financial ratios (see Gardner & Mills 1994:668-669). Financial ratio measures that are used both within and outside the banking industry include the rate of return on assets (ROA), the rate of return on equity (ROE), the ratio of bad debts to assets, the ratio of staff costs to assets plus liabilities, and total costs per employee. Financial ratio measures peculiar to the banking and finance industry include the ratio of non-interest income to interest income, and ratios which measure liquidity and credit risk associated with loan portfolios. Rates of growth (e.g. in deposits and advances), net interest income and the net interest margin (NIM) are also used as summary measures of performance in the banking industry.