Competition and structure of South Asian banking: a revenue behaviour approach

This paper examines the nature of competition and structure in South Asian banking markets. It also assesses whether traditional interest-based product market segments are more competitive than those that also include fee- and commission-based products. The reduced form Panzar-Rosse specification tests show that bank revenues appear to be earned under conditions of monopolistic competition during the period 1995 to 2003. In Bangladesh and Pakistan competition is greater in the traditional interest-based product markets while Indian and Sri Lankan domestic commercial banks seem to face more competitive pressure in the fee-based product market from other financial intermediaries.