Does the target market affect bank performance? Evidence from the geographic diversification of city commercial banks in China

After the opening up of the banking sector to domestic and foreign capitals which is approved by the Chinese government, the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has permitted city commercial banks to diversify geographically. Since this deregulation in 2006, city commercial banks began to geographically diversify to occupy the market and acquire more financial resources. To examine the causal relationship between geographical diversification and bank performance, we construct an exogenous geographical diversification instrument using the gravity-deregulation model and a policy shock. We find that bank geographical diversification negatively affects bank performance. Moreover, we conduct some mechanism tests in the Chinese context. We find that the target market with several large- and medium-sized banks and a high level of local protectionism in the target market decreases the performance of city commercial banks. Finally, cross-sectional analyses show that the impact of geographical diversification on banks’ performance is more notable among city commercial banks that are younger, and have a lower capital adequacy ratio and a higher non-performing loan ratio.