Profitability Determinants in Public & Private Commercial Banks: Evidence from the Egyptian Banking Sector

Abstract

: This paper analyze/examine different internal and external factors that might influence profitability levels of commercial banks operating in the Egyptian banking sector. A sample of twelve commercial banks were selected; six of them are listed banks and the other six represent non-listed banks covering a time span of eight years starting from 2015 till 2022. In the light of examined literature, determinants of banks profitability were categorized as internal/bank-specific factors and external/industry -specific factors. Results achieved support and contradicts some of examined previous studies, results show significant impact of internal factors such as credit risk (positive), liquidity Risk (negative), earning assets to deposits ratio (negative), operating expense ratio (negative), and capital adequacy ratio (positive) on banks profitability levels represented by ROAA, ROAE, and NIM. Also, findings demonstrate significant impact of such macroeconomic factors as inflation rate (positive), GDP growth rate (positive), real interest rate (positive), and Egyptian banking sector development rate (negative) on Egyptian banks profitability levels.