Corruption and banks' non-performing loans: empirical evidence from MENA countries

Abstract

Corruption has long been a serious problem in most countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This research aims to investigate the impact of country-wide corruption on banks' credit risk across 16 countries in this region over the period 2011-2019. Applying the interactive fixed effects estimation technique on a model consisting of both macro and bank-specific variables and utilizing data from 197 banks, the results show a positive significant association between corruption and banks non-performing loans (NPL). Corruption was found to have a positive relation with credit risk even in banks with high risk aversion.