Author(s): Buthiena Kharabsheh
This study aimed to investigate the credit risk determinants in Jordanian banking sector. Both bank-specific variables and macro-economic variables were included in the analysis using a balanced panel dataset of all Jordanian commercial banks over the period 2000-2017. The findings revealed that, credit risk increased as bank capital ratio, operating inefficiency and the growth rate in credit increased. Whereas, larger and more profitable banks faced lower credit risk. However, no effect was found for bank liquidity. Further, the macroeconomic variables included indicated that as unemployment rate increased, credit risk significantly increased and similar positive effect was also documented for the crisis effect. Moreover, the results showed no significant impact for GDP growth or inflation. The outcome of this study provided evidence that credit risk was influenced by both internal and external factors and this was expected to have important implications for policy makers.