Australian specific bank features and the impact of income diversification on bank performance and risk

Piyadasa Edirisuriya, Abeyratna Gunasekarage, Michael Joseph Dempsey

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

    13 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Since financial market deregulation, Australian banks have significantly diversified from a dependence on simple products such as interest-bearing loans to a broader range of financial products services. Such initiatives have transformed the structure of the Australian banking industry and are destined to receive scrutiny following the announcement of Australia s financial services inquiry. Against the common view that attempts by firms to diversify can be expected to impact negatively on financial performance, we find no strong evidence to suggest that diversification has been unfavourable to the performance of Australian banks. We find rather that Australia s banks have improved their risk-return profiles as an outcome of diversification.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)63 - 87
    Number of pages25
    JournalAustralian Economic Papers
    Volume54
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2015

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