Profitability of Commercial Banks Revisited : New Evidence from Oil and Non-Oil Exporting Countries in the MENA Region

This paper investigates whether the determinants of commercial bank profitability differ in oil and non-oil countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region through which a comparative analysis between total banks' sample and regular reporting banks' sample is provided using data from 11 countries over the period 2004–2014. The results indicate that adding irregular reporting banks to the total sample creates bias in some estimated coefficients such as credit risk, particularly in non-oil countries. No enough evidence to support the impact of financial inclusion and financial openness on profitability. In addition, the global financial crisis has significantly affected profitability in oil countries. Several policy implications are provided to the bank management to follow based on each country group