STUDY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BANKS’ INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGIES AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: THE CASE OF GIANT MOROCCAN BANKS

The openness of the three leading Moroccan banking groups (Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Centrale Populaire, and Bank of Africa-BMCE) beyond national borders has been achieved by adopting different internationalization strategies such as cross-border mergers and acquisitions, alliances and partnerships with abroad, and subsidiaries in host countries.Therefore, this article aims to study the effect of every internationalization strategy on bank financial performance. Specifically, it investigates whether the choice of the internationalization strategy impacts the banks’ financial performance. Our study relies on a panel data analysis of these three banks over the period 2005-2019 by using EViews Software. The results adopted come from regressions estimated on panel data using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM). The findings made it possible to identify the positive impact of the choice of cross-border M&A on these banks’ financial performance. We also conclude that foreign alliances and partnerships positively impact the bank’s stock market profitability. Finaly, creation of a subsidiary or branch abroad has a positive impact on the financial performance measured by the ROE, ROA and Tobin's Q. Key-words : Financial Performance, Internationalization Strategy, Banking Groups, Geographic Diversification.