NEXUS BETWEEN FOREIGN BANKS AND FINANCIAL INCLUSION: EVIDENCE FROM THE TRANSITION ECONOMIES

Abstract

This paper examines empirically the impact of foreign banks on access and use of financial services for a panel of transition economies over the period 2004-2017. Transition economies provide rich evidence for analyzing this relationship given the predominance of foreign banks in their banking systems. The results reveal that foreign bank presence is positively associated with banking sector outreach indicators, such as ATM and branch penetration, after controlling for several macroeconomic, institutional and financial country-specific factors, however foreign bank entry is found to have no impact on the use of financial services, as measured by borrowing per capita. Results from low and high foreign bank threshold subsamples provide further evidence that foreign bank penetration effects on financial inclusion do not vary by thresholds. 

Keywords

• foreign banks,financial inclusion,banking sector outreach,transition economies

References

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