# **Section 13: Banking Sector Characteristics**

Section 13 of the 2011–12 survey asked about quantifiable characteristics of the banking sector such as size, structure of the banking sector, performance, and asset and liabilities composition. It has 27 quantitative questions where respondents were requested to enter a value for any given question (Table A13). Although, there is no equivalent section in the previous round of the survey in 2007, some of the questions in section 13 of the 2011–12 survey could be located in other parts of the 2007 survey. Two immediate observations and comparisons can be made. First, bank concentration is quite high both in advanced economies and EMDEs alike. The median share of assets held by the largest five banks is about 75 percent across all countries. Such a high level of concentration, as we saw with financial crisis, may lead to “too big to fail” scenarios and, therefore, may distort the incentives of the senior management of these large institutions. Second, the median fraction of banking system's assets in foreign-controlled banks increased notably from 39 percent to 49 percent. Finally, some of the quantitative questions were excluded from the published version of the survey due to issues of comparability. Those questions tend to cover topics where consistent cross-country data are already available (such as total banking system assets) are indicated by an asterisk in the questionnaire accompanying the dataset at http://www.worldbank.org/financialdevelopment.

**Table A13. Banking Sector Characteristics: Selected Responses**

||**ALL**|**ADV**|**EMDEs**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**A. Overview**|**Median**|**Median**|**Median**|
|How many commercial banks were there at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2005?|24<br>(23)|54<br>(52)|19<br>(20)|
|Of commercial banks in your country, what % of total assets was held by<br>the five largest banks at the end of :<br>2010?<br>2008?|73<br>74|73<br>74|73<br>73|
|Of commercial banks in your country, what % of total deposits was held by<br>the five largest banks at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2008?|75<br>75|72<br>75|75<br>74|
|What % of the commercial banking system's total gross income was in the<br>form of non-interest income in at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2008?|32<br>31|36<br>31|30<br>31|
|What % of the banking system's assets was government-controlled banks<br>(e.g., where government owned 50% or more equity) at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2005?|8<br>(4)|1<br>(0)|13<br>(10)|
|What % of the banking system's assets was foreign-controlled banks (e.g.,<br>where foreigners owned 50% or more equity) at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2005?|49<br>(39)|35<br>(21)|49<br>(43)|
|What was the ratio of specific provisions to gross non-performing loans in:<br>2010?<br>2008?|47<br>46|35<br>36|49<br>54|
|What was the ratio of general provisions to total gross loans at the end of:<br>2010?<br>2008?|1<br>1|0.8<br>0.5|2<br>1|

Source: Calculations based on the 2011–12 Bank Regulation and Supervision Survey, which reflects values as of 2010. Values in parentheses refer to the 2007 Bank Regulation and Supervision Survey, which captures data as of 2005. ADV: advanced economies, EMDEs: emerging and developing economies (see Appendix I for list of countries).

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