Ownership Concentration and Profitability of Central European Banks

An assessment of profitability of 317 commercial banks from Central Europe in 2002–2014 taking into account the shareholder type and the levels of concentration of shareholders’ equity participation. Basic descriptive statistics and parametric tests for equality of variance and means as well as nonparametric, nonlinear dependence estimators were used. All calculations were carried out in the StataIC 13 programme. On the basis of the conducted analysis, it was shown that the type of dominant owner is significant for the profitability achieved by banks. In terms of degree of ownership concentration, results evidencing a positive relation between equity participation allowing strategic control (50–60%) and profitability achieved by a bank were presented. Changes in ownership structure concentration result in a decrease in profitability. The results are significant for banks’ profitability in the context of future ownership transformations. The study is one of the few addressing banks’ profitability in the context of ownership structure and degree of its concentration as selected elements of corporate governance.