BANK SPECIFIC AND MACRO-ECONOMIC DETERMINANTS OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES COMMERCIAL BANKS PROFITABILITY: A PANEL DATA ANALYSIS

This study attempts to identify the Bank Specific and Macro-economic Determinants of The United Arab Emirates Commercial Banks Profitability measured by Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Net Interest Margin. The study uses bank-specificand microeconomic factors as independentvariables. The bank-specific factors include bank size, capital adequacy, assets quality, liquidity, deposits, diversification ,business mix, and efficiency, while the macroeconomic factors include real Gross Domestic Product growth, Inflation Rate, and Real Interest Rate.Regression models were used to relate bank profitability ratios to the independent variables built on panel data for the period 2013-2019 of sixteen commercial banks operating in the United Arab Emirates.The results of the study show thatassetsize, liquidity, off-balance sheet activities, and diversification have significant impact on profitability as measured by theNet Interest Margin. In addition, loans under follow-up to total loans, and managerial efficiency are found to behighlysignificantvariables of profitability in the context of the United Arab Emirates commercial banks as measured by Return on Assets and Return on Equity. Furthermore, diversification has a significant impact on profitability as measured by Return on Assets. The remaining bank-specific factors (capital adequacy, loans to total assets, liquidity, deposits to assets ratio, and operating expenses to total assets ratio) and macroeconomic factors have no significant effect on bank profitability. The results of the study suggest that banks can improve their profitability through maintaining high operating income, decreasing the size of non-performing loans, full utilization of liquid assets, more concentration on the main activities, efficiently managing their operating expenses, and taking advantage of the Gross Domestic Productgrowth , inflation and Interest Rate changes to improve the banks performance and profitability. In addition, it is recommended to make further studies on the banks performance with an expanded scope which is tobe extended to other industries.