The impact of financial management practices on the loan performance of the commercial banks in Baghdad

Commercial banks strive to manage their working capital well while organizing their budgets to enhance their financial performance. Even though many studies have been done to figure out how well bank loans work based on different predictors, little progress has been made in studying the characteristics of loan performance in terms of loan cost effectiveness and default rates. As a result, the focus of this study was to find out the impact of financial management practices (risk management - working capital management - budgeting) on loan performance (loan cost efficiency - default rates) of commercial banks in Baghdad. This thesis relied on the quantitative approach by distributing a questionnaire to the employees of some Iraqi banks. This study found that the better the working capital management and budget management, the higher the cost efficiency of the loan. As for risk management has little effect on the cost efficiency of the loan, and the better the risk management and working capital management, the lower the default rates. Banks can improve the loan performance by incorporating financial management strategies to their operations. It may also help policymakers influence their policies and improve financial management approaches in banks as a way to improve loan performance.