The Effect of Covid-19 on the Financial Performance of Banking Industry in Pakistan:A comparative study of Public & Private Banks

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the effect of covid-19 epidemic on the financial performance of banking industry of Pakistan, with comparative analysis regarding effect of pandemic on the financial performance of public and private sector of Pakistan banks. The research study sample includes 33 banks which are divided into four sectors. For the current study normality test, Shapiro-wilk and skuwness- kurtosis and Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test has been used on the data extracted from annual financial statements of 5 years (2018 to 2022). The study results determind that Covid-19 pandemic put miner effect on the financial performance of banking industry of Pakistan, when banking financial performance during covid-19 compared with before pandemic crises situation. Moreover, the results determined that financial performance of banking industry was adversely affected by covid-19 pandemic, when banking financial performance of during epidemic was compared with the post pandemic situation. Furthermore, the findings revealed that pandemic has significant and negative effect on the financial performance of public & private sector banks in Pakistan when during and before pandemic situation comparison was made. Furthermore, the study concluded that covid-19 outbreak has positive and insignificant effect on the financial performance of public sector banks, while financial performance of private sector banks witnessed negative and significant effect of outbreak, when financial performance of banking sector during covid-19 outbreak was compared with post epidemic banking performance crises situation. The study findings are helpful for policy makers like investors and banks managements and may help them for decision making regarding their managing and investment activities.