The Impacts of Liquidity on Profitability in Banking Sectors of Iraq: A Case of Iraqi Commercial Banks

Abstract

This study examines the influence of liquidity on the profitability of Iraqi commercial banks. Five banks based in Iraq namely: North bank, Iraqi Islamic bank, Sumer bank, Dar Es-Salam bank and Babylon bank randomly selected and analyzed for the current study over the period 2005 to 2013. Moreover, annual reports of these banks have studied and the main ratios of profitability and liquidity were calculated. These reports are available at Iraqi Stock Exchange site. The variables that were identified as independent for liquidity were, loan deposit ratio, deposit asset ratio and cash deposit ratio, while return on assets as dependent variable for profitability. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) model used to examine the impact of liquidity on profitability. The study observes that any increase in liquidity ratios as above mentioned will lead return on asset to increase as well. Depending on this study it could be better for Iraqi banks to keep a balance between liquidity and profitability.