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Building on the literature underscoring the importance of lending relationships and the role of banks' structural and organisational features in favouring firms' access to credit, we investigate the effect of branch closures on firms' birth rates in the Italian local credit markets in 2000-2020. Despite the potential relevance, the implications of de-branching activity have received modest attention from scholars thus far. By employing various measures of branch closures and econometric methodologies, we find that the de-branching process negatively affects the establishment of new firms, and this detrimental impact appears stronger as the closures involve older branches. The results also show that our main findings seem ascribable to the closures carried out by large/medium-sized banks. As a policy implication, our work suggests that - although driven by technological transformations and banks' necessity to rationalise costs - authorities should consider the potential negative consequences that bank de-branching may entail for new business creation.

As global warming's impact on humanity surpasses initial predictions, numerous countries confront heightened risks associated with escalating urban carbon footprints. Concurrently, digital finance has flourished, propelled by advancements in digital technology. This convergence underscores the urgency of exploring digital finance's role in mitigating urban carbon footprint pressures. This study analyzes data spanning 277 Chinese cities from 2011 to 2020, yielding several key findings: Firstly, we developed a dataset detailing the carbon footprint pressures in these cities, revealing that variations in these pressures predominantly correlate with economic growth. Secondly, our analysis indicates that digital finance has a significant impact on reducing urban carbon footprint pressures, through mechanisms such as reducing the number of physical bank branches and enhancing residents' environmental awareness. Thirdly, the study identifies that the efficacy of digital finance in reducing carbon footprint pressures varies according to factors like sunshine duration and geographic location. The insights from this research aim to contribute substantively to strategies for sustainable urban development.

Subject and purpose of work: The study presents a comprehensive analysis of the banking sector in Haryana from 2007 to 2022. Materials and methods: The study is based on secondary data. The number of bank branches, deposits, and credits in the state are just a few economic indicators covered in the Statistical Abstract of Haryana. The compound growth rate is calculated to assess the growth of a bank. Results: The findings reveal a consistent rising trend in bank branches, credit and deposits of commercial banks. Notable trends include increasing bank branches, a surge in deposits and robust credit growth, indicating a dynamic and thriving banking sector. The Credit-Deposit ratio gradually increased from 2007 to 2011, reaching a peak in 2012 at 102.10%. Conclusions: The overall number of bank offices has increased dramatically due to the state’s growing financial sector. The steady expansion in bank branches indicates a sustained effort to improve accessibility and financial inclusion.

In recent decades, the US bank market has been exposed to several waves of mergers, resulting in concerns about branch presence and consumer access to financial services. This paper examines the effects of bank mergers on branch density in the period 2000–2020. To do so, we use panel regressions and matching techniques at the census tract level to study the impact of inter- and intrastate mergers before and after the Great Recession of 2007. To generate plausible exogenous variation for mergers, our analysis focuses on transactions involving large entities, and we consider the within-tract variation in exposure to mergers. A comparison of exposed and unexposed tracts shows that in the period under study each merger reduced branch density by around 3%. Moreover, interstate mergers reduced branch density at the tract level across the whole period but had an expansionary effect on the number of branches at the county level before the crisis. Intrastate mergers, in contrast, had a consolidation effect across the whole period, an impact that was more intense in rural tracts and in tracts where merging entities operated overlapping branch networks. Finally, we show that the reduction of bank branches was stronger in tracts with a relatively higher penetration of broadband Internet services, but we find no evidence that the adoption of FinTech services intensified branch closures.

Today, the development of financial technologies and their application in the banking sector have changed the processes of economic growth in general and commercial banks in particular, giving them an innovative orientation. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the banking infrastructure, innovation, and economic growth in Kazakhstan based on panel data. The study relies on information extracted from annual publications issued by the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the World Bank Database, and the Bureau of the National Statistics of Kazakhstan from 2004 to 2022, and also uses a regression model. Within this framework, variables used in the study, the number of ATMs, the number of bank branches, and the share of innovative products, are explanatory variables, and the gross domestic product per capita is the dependent variable. The study showed that both business innovations and the prevalence of ATMs have a significant and noticeable impact on the economic landscape of Kazakhstan, as evidenced by the impressive value of the R-square of 0.890. Moreover, the regression model demonstrates reliable stability and reliability, which is confirmed by the p-value of 0.001. In light of these findings, it is important to contribute valuable insights and evidence-based recommendations to enhance Kazakhstan’s economic growth strategy by leveraging the synergistic potential of its banking infrastructure and innovation ecosystem. AcknowledgmentsThe study was funded by the Committee Science of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan “Investigating the impact of macroeconomic, political, and digital processes on financial sustainability of Kazakhstan” No. AP19674948.

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of gender equality on financial stability and financial inclusion for 14 developing countries using yearly data from 2005 to 2021. Design/methodology/approach The two-stage least squares regression estimation and the generalized linear model regression estimation were used to investigate the effect of gender equality on financial stability and financial inclusion. Findings Gender equality has a significant positive effect on financial stability and financial inclusion in developing countries. Gender equality has a significant positive effect on financial stability and financial inclusion in African countries. Gender equality has a significant positive effect on financial stability but not on financial inclusion in non-African countries. Originality/value Little attention has been paid to the role of gender equality in promoting financial stability and financial inclusion. The authors address this issue in this study.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the association between intellectual capital (IC) and bank efficiency of Taiwanese bank branches.Design/methodology/approachThis study manually collects sample data from 107 non-public financial reports of the bank branches of Taiwan Business Bank Company Limited. As this study concerns bank branches, this study uses questionnaires related to IC to measure the implementation of IC at branch level. This study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) models (BCC, EBM and BootBCC) to identify bank branches' efficiency. This study uses partial least square-based structural equation modeling analysis to assess the impact of IC and bank efficiency.FindingsResult reveals that relational capital (RC) significantly and negatively impacts bank efficiency. Findings also imply that human capital (HC) and structural capital (SC) do not contribute to bank efficiency in Taiwan.Practical implicationsSpending effort in building relationships with customers diverts banks' resources. More inputs that are used may not be converted to outputs immediately. Bank branches should focus on enhancing their service quality to attract customers to use the facilities provided by branches.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this empirical study is the first to examine the association between IC and bank branches' efficiency in Taiwan by integrating primary and secondary data. For IC components, this study conducts a survey by designing the questionnaires related to IC to assess the implementation of IC at bank branches in Taiwan. In terms of efficiency, this study uses bank financial data and DEA models to identify bank branches' efficiency.

Purpose Empirical research on the relationship between financial inclusion and economic growth has neglected the influence of religion or secularism. This study aims to investigate the effect of financial inclusion on economic growth in religious and secular countries. Design/methodology/approach The financial inclusion indicators are the number of automated teller machines (ATMs)per 100,000 adults and the number of bank branches per 100,000 adults. These two indicators are the accessibility dimension of financial inclusion based on physical points of service. The two-stage least square (2SLS) regression method was used to analyze the effect of financial inclusion on real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita growth and real GDP growth in religious and secular countries. Findings Bank branch contraction significantly increases economic growth in secular countries. Bank branch expansion combined with greater internet usage increases economic growth in secular countries while high ATM supply combined with greater internet usage decreases economic growth in secular countries. This study also finds that bank branch expansion, in the midst of a widening poverty gap, significantly increases economic growth in religious countries, implying that financial inclusion through bank branch expansion is effective in promoting economic growth in poor religious countries. It was also found that internet usage is a strong determinant of economic growth in secular countries. Originality/value Few studies in the literature examined the effect of financial inclusion on economic growth. But the literature has not examined how financial inclusion affects economic growth in religious and secular countries.

Income inequality has long been an important issue in development economics. Applying international data from 119 countries between 2004 and 2018, this study discusses the relationship between the accessibility of financial services and income inequality. Using the density of the bank branch network to represent the accessibility of financial services, we discover that income inequality is negatively related to the accessibility of financial services, especially in less developed countries and regions. In this nexus, the poverty ratio serves as an intermediary variable. The significance of the nexus is weaker in countries where fintech is more popularized, indicating the substitution effect between fintech and traditional banking services. Nevertheless, the substitution effect is limited, and bank branches will keep playing an important role in delivering financial services. For countries with inadequate banking services, bank branches should be increased to encourage residents to participate in the financial system, while it is no longer necessary to add a large number of branches in countries where fintech has been popularized. Faced with the trend of financial digitalization and the economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, banks should launch more online services and increase intelligent machines in the branches. By doing so, financial services are more resilient to social changes, so as to alleviate the inequality of income distribution in the long term.