evaluation of agricultural bank branches performance using data envelopment analysis: case study ofalborz province

banks as the most important financial institutions play a great role in the iranian economy and increasing their economic efficiency is the main objective of the banks. this paper aims to evaluate performance of 25 branches of the agricultural bank of alborz province in 2012-13. to this end, data envelopment analysis technique was applied. the results indicated that the average technical efficiencies of branches under constant and variable returns to scale were, in 2012, 84.2 and 87.7 percent and, in 2013, 92.8 and 93.7 percent, respectively. the average efficiencies to scale were 95.9%, and 98.9 percent respectively in two mentioned years.