Can Ratios Predict the Financial Performance in Banks: A Case of National Banks in United Arab Emirates (U.A.E)

Abstract

A country’s banking sector plays a dominant and important role in its financial growth and economic progress. The prime objective of this research paper is aimed towards evaluating the performance of 12 selected banks in United Arab Emirates (UAE) through various financial ratios. The paper highlights the various financial parameters such as adequacy of risk based capital, credit growth, concentration of credit, non performing position of loans, liquidity gap analysis, liquidity ratios, return on assets, return on equity, net interest margin in analysing the financial performance of the selected banks. The analysis of ratio helps to develop an insight to the extent the various financial variable impact the profitability and the productivity of the selected National Commercial Banks in U.A.E. The purpose of this paper is to examine the future financial performance of selected U.A.E National commercial banks using three indicators; Internal–based performance measured by Return on Assets, Market-based performance measured by Tobin’s Q model (Price / Book value of Equity) and Economic–based performance measured by Economic Value add. The financial data has been adopted from the audited financial statements of the sampled banks for the period of 2014 till 2017. Statistical tools used in the study include multiple regression analysis that captures the impact of the individual size of the bank, the credit risk, efficiency in operations and the asset management on the financial performance followed by forecasting the Future Trend.