Abstract
This study evaluates, comparatively, through the intermediation approach, the degree of efficiency of 99 financial institutions that acted, in 2013, in the Brazilian financial market. It was the financial intermediation activity that generated the emergence and consolidation of financial institutions around the world. So this was one of the reasons that motivated the choice of intermediation approach to assess the efficiency of financial institutions. It is believed to be relevant to assess whether such institutions in Brazil are getting to be more efficient in their traditional activity, financial intermediation. Importantly, in addition to the intermediation approach, there are also two other major approaches to evaluate the efficiency of financial institutions: production and profitability. The technical data envelopment analysis (DEA), whose applicability to evaluation of bank efficiency is widespread in literature, was adopted to calculate the efficiency scores of institutions, which were classified according to four criteria: the origin of capital, size, risk (credit rating) and sector of activity. 22 institutions with higher efficiency have been identified, with some heterogeneity in relation to the origin of capital, size and sector of activity. On the other hand, an indication that there is a directly proportional relationship between the positive credit rating and efficiency was identified.
Banking efficiency; intermediation approach; Brazilian financial institutions; DEA