Identifying the Effective Factors in Banking Sector using Data Envelopment Analysis Considering System Efficiency

Bank efficiency is essential in the establishment of healthy financial systems in countries. In this respect, bank managers are expected to respond correctly to questions raised about the financial performance of banks, which is practically impossible without examining the efficiency of the branches under their oversight. In most previous studies, Data Envelopment Analysis was used for evaluating the efficiency of financial branches. The large number of evaluation factors in the analysis leads to an increase in the number of efficient units and thus a decrease in the power of discrimination. Taking a systematic view into consideration, in this study, a step-by-step method was developed for selecting the effective factors in the efficiency of different branches of one of the Iranian Banks based on the effect of each factor or indicator on the whole system’s efficiency including the branches under evaluation. To this end, a new method was proposed for the evaluation of system’s efficiency and some of its properties were stated.