ASSESSING PROFITABILITY AND GROWTH OF INSURANCE SECTOR IN SAUDI ARABIA: USING FINANCIALS AND TANGIBLES

The purpose: The purpose of this study to find out the contribution of internal (financial) and external (tangible & human resource) factors of growth and development of the Saudi insurance sector and facilitate suggestions. Methodology: The study considers financial data of insurance companies of Saudi Arabia for the period 2013 to 2017for internal analysis while data from 2010 to 2015 for external analysis. Trend indices (chain based index numbers & fixed base index numbers) from financial statements and insurance establishments and human resources of the insurance industry are prepared to know the internal and external factors responsible for growth and development. The averages of trend indices are obtained to get the results of the analysis. Findings: The study finds that there is negativity in operational efficiency. It also finds that the internal liabilities or shareholders’ equities are decreasing continuously. Also, establishments engaged in insurance activities are not enough to cover all prospective customers. Implications: The finding implies that the increase in revenues is not enough. The findings also imply a weak long term paying ability towards this the study recommends further investment in profitable options like securities and avoid excess liquidity and increase insurance penetration. Novelty: This study is one of the few that assesses the performance of the insurance sector of Saudi Arabia. In the process, it performs internal analysis using operational and financial factors; and an external analysis using tangibles and intangibles

Service quality, customers’ satisfaction, and profitability: an empirical study of Saudi Arabian insurance sector

Financial performance is the fundamental aspect to test the performance of the companies. The performance of insurance sector, like any other service industry, is supposed to depend significantly on customers. When it comes to customers, it is an established fact that customer satisfaction would be an important element. Customer satisfaction primarily depends on the quality of service it gets. It can be safely hypothesized that better service quality would lead to higher satisfaction, which would ultimately lead to higher profits for the company. Studies on this relationship in the insurance sector for Saudi Arabia are missing. Hence, this study aims at studying both the profitability of companies and quality of service and tries to relate it to customer satisfaction. The results are quite surprising, as the study establishes that although the qualities of services are found wanting in many areas, companies are earning good profits. A probable reason could be the statutory nature of the services. Nevertheless, this study recommends improving the quality of services and differentiating services between age groups for further improvement

Banks’ Performance and Economic Growth in India: A Panel Cointegration Analysis

The banking sector plays a crucial role in the economic growth of a nation. The purpose of this study is to examine the long-term association between banks’ performance and the economic growth of a developing economy: India. The study used a panel of data of 20 public sector banks for the period 2009 to 2019. It applied the Pedroni and Kao test of co-integration, panel vector error correction model (VECM) dynamic, panel fully-modified ordinary least squires OLS (FMOLS), and dynamic OLS (DOLS) to estimate the relationship of interest margin return on assets, bank investment, and lending capacity of the bank with gross domestic product (GDP) of the country. The identification and incorporation of these bank-related variables are the innovations of this study. The results indicate that the bank-related variables are co-integrated with economic growth. Further analysis indicates a significant relationship between interest margin and return on assets with economic growth. In addition, lending capacity and investment activities are not significantly associated with economic growth, leading to the policy recommendation to improve upon these two factors in order to achieve higher growth rates