Nueva Evidencia sobre la Eficiencia de la Banca Colombiana: Una medición con modelos de frontera no-paramétricos (New Evidence on the Efficiency of the Colombian Banks: An Evaluation with Non-Parametric Frontier Models)

Spanish Abstract: En este documento se evalua la eficiencia de la banca colombiana durante el periodo 2000-2009 utilizando el metodo no-parametrico de analisis envolvente de datos (DEA). Bajo el enfoque de intermediacion financiera, se estimaron medidas de eficiencia tecnica, de escala, y en costos empleando una aproximacion global y otra por ventanas de tiempo. Se realizo un analisis inter-temporal del cambio en productividad mediante el calculo del indice de Malmquist. Los resultados muestran que durante el periodo de estudio la industria bancaria presento un incremento gradual en su eficiencia ubicandose en niveles cercanos al 80% en promedio, aunque con una elevada dispersion entre las entidades. En 2008 se presento una caida generalizada en las medidas de eficiencia asociada al impacto sistemico de la crisis financiera internacional. Sin embargo, a partir de 2009 se observo una rapida recuperacion en las medidas de eficiencia a excepcion de la eficiencia en costos, lo que se explica en parte por la inflexibilidad en los costos laborales. Asimismo, se encontro evidencia a favor del incremento en la eficiencia tecnica de las entidades que efectuaron fusiones y adquisiciones durante el periodo. English Abstract: In this paper we evaluate the efficiency of the Colombian banking sector during the period 2000-2009 by using the non-parametric frontier method (DEA). Under the financial intermediation approach we estimate technical, scale and cost efficiency measures by applying both global and time-windows approximations. Likewise, we compute the Malmquist productivity change index to identify evidence on technological changes and/or gains in efficiency during the period. Results show that banks exhibited a gradual increase in the efficiency measures of around 0.80 in average whit a large dispersion among the banks, and a positive productivity change of 3.9 mostly explained by a technological change that improves the banking industry. In 2008 bank efficiency and productivity measures showed an abrupt fall as a consequence of the increasing financial uncertainty derived from the global financial crisis. However, since 2009 a rapid recovery in most of the efficiency and productivity measures was observed, excluding cost efficiency which may be associated to the rigid labor cost. We also found evidence in favor of efficiency gains after M&A among banks. This suggests that to improve the efficiency of the banking system regulators also should take into account the positive impact from the M&A among banks.