An Evaluation of the Effects of Interest Rate Spread on Bank Performance: The Case of China

Interest rate spread is the difference between the interest rate received and the interest rate paid. This thesis seeks to investigate the relationship between the bank performance and the interest rate spread. The study focused on China and data was collected from The Bankers Database for the years 2014-2016. In order to analyse the relationship five independent variables were selected to assist in the research. These variables are interest rate spread, savings deposit rate, liquidity risk, operations risk and provision for bad debts. From the results we are able to conclude that there is a positive relationship between the interest rate spread and bank performance.