FACTORS THAT DISCRIMINATE BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN BANKS OPERATING IN TURKEY

The Banking Restructuring Program has resulted in significant changes in the Turkish banking sector after 2001: together with the improvement in risk management systems and more effective public supervision, measures were taken to strengthen the capital structure of domestic commercial banks. As a result, domestic banks operate with a healthier financial structure today, as evidenced by their strong position during the recent global financial crisis. This study aims at determining if there are any operational differences between domestic and foreign commercial banks operating in Turkey today. In this respect, their main financial ratios, as well as their personnel and branch network related ratios are compared. These ratios demonstrate their strategy while operating in the Turkish banking system. To find out if the differences between the means of these ratios are statistically significant for the two groups (domestic –foreign), both the discriminant analysis and the logistic regression analysis are used