The relationship between revenue diversification and bank performance: Do financial structures and financial reforms matter?

•Investigate revenue diversification's impact on bank performance.•Use a panel dataset of 29 Asia-Pacific countries covering 1995-2009.•Evidence confirms the hypothesis of the portfolio diversification effect.•Bank-based groups support the “bank-based view” hypothesis.

This paper contributes to the existing literature by investigating the impact of revenue diversification on bank performance through a broad array of financial reforms, including credit controls, interest rate controls, entry barriers, banking supervision, privatization, and financial account restrictions. This analysis is the first to investigate whether financial structures (bank- or market-based systems) change the effect of diversification on individual bank performance. We use a panel dataset sample from 29 Asia-Pacific countries covering the period between 1995 and 2009, for a total of 2372 banks. Unlike the results of previous studies based on data from the U.S. and Europe, this study confirms the hypothesis of the portfolio diversification effect for the Asia-Pacific banking industry. For bank-based groups, bank performance can be improved through diversification, supporting the “bank-based view” hypothesis. Finally, under different financial systems, the relationships among revenue diversity, financial reforms, and bank performances are multidimensional.