The goal of this research is to identify the factors that influence the net interest margin (NIM) for Palestinian conventional banks. Palestine is a unique country with poor governance, political uncertainty, and regulatory insufficiency adding higher information asymmetry to the decision-making process. The sample is comprised of unbalanced panel data from 15 commercial banks for the period 2011–2020. The research used a pooled OLS, a fixed-effect model, a random effect model, a robust pooled OLS, a difference GMM, and a system GMM estimators. Evidence collected supports that net interest margin is positively influenced by risk aversion, operating costs, and loan to deposit, while negatively related to credit risk. The effect of size is positive but not robust. The results imply that banks and policymakers can increase efficiency by better controlling these factors. Particularly, operating costs can be reduced by implementing efficient banking technologies and improving management practices that reduce the cost of staff. In future research, other factors should be considered including the bank's ownership structure and type, whether Islamic or conventional.

Title

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Publisher

An-Najah National University

Publisher Country

Palestine

Indexing

Scopus

Impact Factor

None

Publication Type

Both (Printed and Online)

Volume

37

Year

2023

Pages

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