 Digitalization and banks' efficiency: Evidence from a European analysisRym Ayadi, Laura Chiaramonte, Doriana Cucinelli and Milena Migliavacca International Review of Financial Analysis, 2025, vol. 97, issue C Abstract: This paper firstly investigates the impact of digitalisation on bank efficiency and then analyses potential non-linearities in this relationship, as well as the possible moderating role played by bank business models, covering a sample of European banks over the period 2006–2021. Our results suggest that IT investments improve bank efficiency - more on the profit side than on the cost side – but that this interplay has an inverted U-shape, which indicates that excessive investment in IT technologies may be detrimental to both profit and cost efficiency. Moreover, the empirical findings show that the digitalisation-efficiency linkage is sensitive to the business model adopted by banks; in particular, retail-oriented banks benefit more from digitalisation compared to those that are market-oriented. The overall results, including those countries where digitalisation is overall low, are consistent across different robustness tests and model specifications. This study could be helpful in guiding a cognisant digital transition for European banks. Keywords: Bank digitalisation; IT investments; Bank efficiency; Bank business models (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finana:v:97:y:2025:i:c:s1057521924007695 DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2024.103837 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Financial Analysis is currently edited by B.M. Lucey More articles in International Review of Financial Analysis from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.