The Effect of Ownership on Banks Profitability in Business Cycles

Banks, like other businesses, have always been trying to maximize their profits. In this regard, banks are working in a variety of ways to maximize their profits to a steady level of profit. The factors that are referred to as internal variables are mainly in the hands of banks; and banks, by choosing an optimal amount of these variables, seek to raise their profitability. Some of these factors are outside the control of banks, including macroeconomic variables. Accordingly, in this research, it has been tried to examine the effect of business cycles and the role that banks' ownership structure in these cycles can have on their profitability. For this purpose, using econometric analysis of panel data gathered during the years 2006-2017, the effect of the profitability of 18 domestic banks on business cycles has been investigated. The results show that the profitability of the whole sample has not been affected the business cycles during the period considered. But when using the ownership structure as a dummy variable, the effect of business cycles on the profitability of government banks from other banks results in the cyclicality of the profitability of these banks in the business cycle.