Increasing the Income of Commercial Banks in Uzbekistan

Commercial banks are a key component of the financial system, and they play an important role in mobilizing savings and supporting economic growth.Understanding the structural changes in bank income is of great significance for understanding the profitability and financial stability of commercial banks.Therefore, the main aim of the present study was to examine factors affecting income growth in commercial banks in Uzbekistan (N = number of participating banks) by conducting both expert assessments (n = number of experts) and bank-level analyses (n = number of bank observations) focusing on income generation.To identify and quantitatively assess key factors, this study aimed to examine income sources in commercial banks and their relative changes based on financial indicators and expert judgments, using AHP and SEM.Financial data were collected, expert judgments were obtained, and statistical analyses were conducted.Both the relative importance of income growth factors (by AHP) and the relationships among financial indicators (by SEM and path analysis) were examined.Since no more than limited evidence could be found on the combined use of AHP and SEM in Uzbekistan, results indicated differences in the relative importance of income growth factors rather than equal contributions when each factor was assessed.The results showed that income growth was significantly and positively associated with lending activities and non-interest income.In both AHP and SEM analyses, most financial factors showed rather small differences in their relative contributions and produced varying effects, suggesting that income sources were of different importance and should be managed with appropriate strategies.The income changes found in this study are highly consistent with the importance of effective financial management, which indicates that the diversification of revenue sources has an important influence on the profitability changes of commercial banks.