Meng-Wen Wu

Impact of Foreign Bank Entry on the Performance of Chinese Banks

This study investigates how foreign bank/investor penetrations influence local bank performance in China. At the country level, foreign bank penetration is proxied by MacroFP, measured by the percentage of banks with foreign strategic investors (FSI) among total banks. At the bank level, foreign bank penetration is proxied by MicroFP, measured by the percentage shareholding of FSI in a bank. When foreign bank penetration is proxied by MacroFP, it is found to improve the profitability of local banks but not to reduce costs. Next, when foreign bank penetration is proxied by MicroFP, it is found to affect neither profitability nor costs. In sum, the present study demonstrates that the opening-up policy is correct from a macro perspective. However, for banks that have introduced FSI, determining the reasons for improvements in performance being inhibited is more important than releasing more shares to foreign investors.

The elusive effect of bank size on profits

This study investigates the determinants of bank profit while paying particular attention to the influence of market share on profit, referred as the market share effect. The research seeks to answer the question whether the market share effect is conditional upon four country institutional factors including concentration ratio, bank regulations, the governments governance and country wealth, and is thus better in explaining the mixed results in the literature. This study employs comprehensive data of 44 countries from 1998 to 2004. The results show that market share positively influences profit when no country institutional factors are considered, but further strengthened in countries that are characterized by high concentration ratios, high restrictions on bank activities in insurance and real estate, good investor protection and a strong rule of law.

Cooperation Satisfaction and Performance: Empirical Evidence from Chinese Banks and Their Foreign Strategic Investors

In this paper, we investigate whether the mutual satisfaction of Chinese banks and foreign strategic investors (FSI) in terms of their cooperation with each other affects the performance of Chinese banks. Since 2004, Chinas banking authority has conducted an annual survey on Chinese banks and their FSI, assessing levels of mutual satisfaction in terms of their cooperation. We use these survey results to examine the effects of satisfaction levels on the profitability of Chinese banks. Our results reveal that satisfaction affects profitability; that is, satisfied foreign investors and Chinese banks yield better performance. Satisfaction determinants for each party are also examined. Although the profitability of Chinese banks does not show a significant effect on the satisfaction of either party, bank loan to deposit ratios, regions of FSI home countries, and the type of Chinese banks are important factors that might affect satisfaction.

Twin Booms: The Lead--Lag Relation Between Credit and Housing Booms

Abstract In this study, we examine the causal relation between credit (proxied by credit-to-GDP ratio) and house markets (proxied by house price index) using data of using thirty-six countries for the period 1996–2012. We find a bidirectional causal relation between the two markets using the whole sample. Then, we find that during the non–twin boom period, the results are the same as those using the whole sample. During the twin boom periods, the two markets are not linked using the boom definition of deviation from the trend, and the housing market leads the credit market using the boom definition of the growth rate exceeding a certain 15 percent.