The Effect of Financial Repression on the Profitability of Banks in Iran: GMM-SYS Approach

In today's complex world, the financial system plays an important role in the stability, economic growth and development of countries. Financial repression is a set of formal policies, laws and regulations and informal controls imposed by governments on the financial sector that deviates the financial sector prices (interest rates and exchange rates) from its equilibrium values, and it prevents financial institutions from operating at their maximum capacity. Financial repression directly and indirectly affects the activities of banks. First, financial repression has reduced the deposits of economic agents in banks and has a negative effect on banks' incomes by reducing banks' lending capacity; Second, as capital accumulation decreases, and consequently, economic growth reduction, banks' income from lending facilities will decrease. In this survey, the impact of financial repression on the profitability of banks in Iran during the period 2011-2017 is investigated using Generalized Method of Moments-System (GMM-SYS). The results show that financial repression adversely affects banks' profit margin. So that, banks' profit margin is reduced to 0.02 units by increasing one indicator unit for financial repression. The results show that financial repression reduces the grant power of banks' facilities, by reducing the deposit of economic agents. As a result, it indirectly reduces banks' income from granting facilities.