Investigation of Factors Affecting Banking Leverage in Selected Iranian Banks (Random-Coefficients Approach)

This study investigates the effect of intra-organizational and macroeconomic factors on banking leverage in selected Iranian banks. For this purpose, after calculation of the Banking Leverage for each bank, by using Random-Coefficients Approach (Swamy model), the impact of explanatory variables during the period of 1999-2016 was examined separately by 10 selected Iranian public and private banks. Based on calculations, Melli, Saderat, Refah, and Tejarat Bank had the highest and Sanat-va-Madan, Eghtesad-Novin, and Sepah had the lowest level of banking leverage. Furthermore; the results of estimations show that "organizational" and "structural-variables" of each bank have different effects on their banking leverage. For example, "credit risk" has a positive and significant effect on bank leverage in "Tejarat", "Saderat", "Refah" and "Sanat-va-Madan" banks. The effect of "liquidity risk" is the same as "credit risk". In general, due to banks' dissimilar structures, organizational and structural variables hold a varying impact on their banking leverage.