A Comparative Study of Commercial Banks’ Resilience Across Crisis Timeframe: Case of Lithuania

Abstract Research purpose. The primary purpose of the current study is to analyse commercial banks’ resilience in Lithuania in pre-, under-, and post-COVID-19 pandemic settings in order to understand if the banking sector has recovered and reached the pre-crisis level. Design / Methodology / Approach. The analysis involved seven commercial banks operating in Lithuania in the analysed period. In order to calculate the resilience score, the CRITIC-TOPSIS methodology was employed. The CRITIC method was used to determine the objective weights of the selected resilience criteria, while TOPSIS was used to compute the resilience scores and rank the banks. The research period covers 2019, 2021, and 2024, where 2019 is treated as the pre-pandemic phase, 2021 – pandemic onset and peak, and 2024 – post-pandemic period. Findings. The findings revealed that larger banks have almost recovered after the pandemic and reached the pre-pandemic resilience level. Moreover, digital banks are the most stable in the light of financial shocks and economic disruption. On the other hand, the smaller banks are still suffering from the challenges caused by COVID-19 and continue to face challenges in restoring their resilience. Originality / Value / Practical implications. Theoretical research on resilience indicators showed that even indirect measures of resilience could be included as criteria. This was supported by the results showing that such unusual criteria as Large Exposure Ratio are concluded to be the most weighted resilience measure, especially in post-pandemic settings. The current results might be used by policymakers and banking sector stakeholders of all the Baltic countries to better assess the current state of the banking sector and its ability to absorb financial shocks caused by different crises.