Modelling the Impact of Liquidity Trend on the Financial Performance of Commercial Banks and Economic Growth in Cameroon

Abstract

Recent year statistics have revealed the build-up of excess liquidity in Cameroonian commercial banks for more than two decades now. This has led to renewed interest in liquidity management, as it has implications on the financial performance of commercial banks. This paper is therefore designed to examine the impact of excess liquidity on the financial performance of commercial banks in Cameroon. Using Return on Assets (ROA) as proxy for the measurement of financial performance, secondary data from 1990 to 2016, with the application of the VAR technique, the findings reveals that excess liquidity and total liquid outflows affect ROA negatively. Gross domestic product, interest rate gap, total liquid inflows and previous year ROA had positive effects on ROA. Also from the empirical findings, there is an existing significant negative chain between excess liquidity, commercial bank performance and economic growth in Cameroon based on the Koyck Geometric lag reasoning. To address the negative vicious cycle chain, we therefore recommend guided minimum and maximum liquidity regulatory control and government effort geared towards encouraging moral suasions and special directive of investment by commercial banks in the agricultural, industrial and the educational sectors in Cameroon. Also, commercial banks should set maturity mismatch limits appropriate to the size of excess liquidity observed in each bank. Attempt to reverse the chain is part of the assurance to Cameroon emergence by 2035.