Can Capital Structure Affect the Financial Performance of Banks in Turkey?

The aim of this study is to investigate the determinants of banks’ financial performance in terms of the capital structure. Annual financial statements of 11 banks traded in Borsa Istanbul are employed for the period of 2006-2016. Return on assets, return on equity and earnings per share are chosen for financial performance measures. The independent variables related to the capital structure are capital adequacy, equity-to-asset, and financial leverage ratios. In addition, macroeconomic variables and bank-specific variables are also considered as control variables for the analysis. The data are analyzed by the panel data regression analysis as it provides more informative finding and less multicollinearity among variables than time series and cross-sectional analyzes.The Hausman test results indicate that the random effects model is appropriate for the whole dependent variables. According to the findings; while equity-to-asset ratio affects return on assets positively, amongst the control variables specific to firms, firm size, asset quality and asset growth variables have significant effects on return on assets. It is found no significant effect of independent variables on return on equity, however, it is seen that asset quality has a negative and significant effect. Inflation and interest rates have a significant effect on both variables. Finally, it is seen that equity-to-asset ratio has a positive and significant effect on earnings per share. Only the effect of asset quality on earnings per share is found to be significant among the control variables. Findings of the study are consistent with the previous studies. In addition, the M&M views are not supported by the findings related to return on assets and earnings per share but the return on equity.