A study on Importance of International Banking

  • Unique Paper ID: 154143
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue: 10
  • PageNo: 203-208
  • Abstract:
  • This paper asks how important distance is as a determinant of international banking and whether distance has become less important over time. If technological progress has lowered information costs and if information costs increase in distance, the importance of distance should have declined. I use data on assets and liabilities of commercial banks from five countries (France, Germany, Italy, UK, and US) in 50 host countries for the years 1983–99 to test this hypothesis. Generally, I find that banks hold significantly lower assets in distant markets and that the importance of distance for the foreign asset holdings of banks has not changed. This article aims at providing a framework to assess corporate social responsibility with international banks. Currently, it is mainly rating institutions like EIRIS and KLD that provide information about firms’ social conduct and performance. However, this is costly information and it is not clear how the rating institutions arrive at their conclusion. We develop a framework to assess the social responsibility of internationally operating banks. We apply this framework to more than 30 institutions and find significant differences among individual banks, countries, and regions. Furthermore, it appears that social responsibility of these banks has significantly improved between 2000 and 2005.

Cite This Article

  • ISSN: 2349-6002
  • Volume: 8
  • Issue: 10
  • PageNo: 203-208

A study on Importance of International Banking

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