Efficiency of banks in a developing economy: The case of India

The objective of this paper is to measure the productive efficiency of banks in a developing country, that is, India. The measurement of efficiency is done using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Two models have been constructed to show how efficiency scores vary with change in inputs and outputs. The efficiency scores, for three groups of banks, that is, publicly owned, privately owned and foreign owned, are measured. The study shows that the mean efficiency score of Indian banks compares well with the world mean efficiency score and the efficiency of private sector commercial banks as a group is, paradoxically lower than that of public sector banks and foreign banks in India. The study recommends that the existing policy of reducing non-performing assets and rationalization of staff and branches may be continued to obtain efficiency gains and make the Indian banks internationally competitive which is a declared objective of the Government of India. JEL classification: D61; G21; G34