The digital revolution in banking: Unpacking risk management in the age of transformation

IF 5.6 2区经济学 Q1 BUSINESS, FINANCE

International Review of Economics & Finance Pub Date : 2025-07-16 DOI:10.1016/j.iref.2025.104444

Zheyan Yu , Jiacheng Liu

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Abstract

Digital transformation has become a strategic imperative for commercial banks, reshaping their risk management and operational frameworks. We examine the impact of digital transformation on risk-taking behaviors in China's commercial banking sector, using a unique dataset of 238 banks from 2010 to 2021. The outcomes reveal that digital transformation significantly reduces banks' overall risk-taking levels. Notably, mechanism analysis highlights that enhanced operational efficiency and corporate governance mediate this relationship. Our results demonstrate substantial heterogeneity: smaller banks, urban and rural commercial banks, and institutions in Eastern China benefit more from risk reductions via digital transformation compared to their larger counterparts and those in Central and Western regions. Furthermore, strategic and business-level digitalization exert a more pronounced effect on risk-taking mitigation than managerial-level digitalization. Our findings offer theoretical and practical implications for advancing digital transformation strategies, refining risk management frameworks, and formulating differentiated policies for diverse banking institutions.

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银行业的数字革命：转型时代的风险管理

数字化转型已成为商业银行的战略要务，重塑了它们的风险管理和运营框架。我们使用2010年至2021年238家银行的独特数据集，研究了数字化转型对中国商业银行业风险承担行为的影响。研究结果显示，数字化转型显著降低了银行的整体风险承担水平。值得注意的是，机制分析强调了运营效率的提高和公司治理对这种关系的中介作用。我们的研究结果显示了巨大的异质性：与大型银行和中西部地区相比，中国东部地区的小型银行、城市和农村商业银行以及机构从数字化转型带来的风险降低中获益更多。此外，战略和业务层面的数字化对降低风险的影响比管理层面的数字化更为显著。我们的研究结果为推进数字化转型战略、完善风险管理框架和制定不同银行机构的差异化政策提供了理论和实践意义。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Review of Economics & Finance Multiple-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

2.20%

发文量

253

期刊介绍： The International Review of Economics & Finance (IREF) is a scholarly journal devoted to the publication of high quality theoretical and empirical articles in all areas of international economics, macroeconomics and financial economics. Contributions that facilitate the communications between the real and the financial sectors of the economy are of particular interest.