Title: Credit risk, economic growth and profitability of banks

Authors: Ammar Jreisat

Addresses: College of Business, Al Ain University, Abu Dhabi, 112612, UAE ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7697-8484

Abstract: The determinants of banking profitability targeting the UAE banking sector was the main purpose of this study. There are different factors that affect the profitability of banks in UAE, the importance of each factor will be tested using regression models. By using a dataset of 14 banks for the period 2008-2016. Based on the findings the most important factor to improve the banking profitability are increase non-interest income, as well as the positive impact of economic growth on banking profitability. The study concluded that credit risk is one of the most important negative effects affecting the banks' financial performance by increasing non-performing loans and reducing the quality of total loans, which requires UAE banks to focus on increasing non-interest income and avoiding risk when lending to customers in addition to being cautious about it.

Keywords: profitability; credit risk; inflation; economic growth; banking sector; panel regression; ordinary least square panel regression; fixed effects panel regression; UAE.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2020.109150

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2020 Vol.20 No.2, pp.152 - 167

Received: 06 Sep 2019
Accepted: 01 Jan 2020

Published online: 21 Aug 2020 *

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