Determinants of Bank Failures in Multiple-Currency Regime in Zimbabwe (2009–2012)

Upsurge in bank failure cases under a more stable currency environment are rare, but the Zimbabwean case raised a lot of questions, which justified the need to deeply investigate sources of bank failures. This is considered an imperative move considering the impact that bank failures pose to stakeholders outside the banking sector such as investors and depositors, the Zimbabwean banking sector itself as well as the entire economy. This study investigated the determinants of bank failures in Zimbabwe under the multicurrency environment. The study employed pooled logit estimator using general to specific logit estimation procedure on fourteen banks by making use of 2009–2012 panel data. Empirical findings indicated that the macroeconomic environment, in particular GDP growth rate, has much influence on bank failure than any other bank fundamental. Among bank fundamentals, liquidity, profitability and capitalisation proved to be prominent bank related determinants of bank failures in their respective order. Findings also suggest that loan-to-deposits ratio (LTD), deposits-to-assets ratio (DTA), gross revenue ratio (GRR), return on assets (ROA), efficiency ratio (EFR), SIZE and GDP growth rate (GDP) variables are negatively correlated to the possibility of banks failing while loan-to-assets (LTA) have positive influence on bank failures. Based on these findings the researcher recommends that RBZ must accentuate liquidity and capital requirements since both liquidity and capital ratios were significant and had higher marginal effects.