Debt equity Ratio: Banks have a lower equity base and usually use borrowings to fund their assets. Borrowings being the cheaper source to help banks to expand their capacity to earn more money by making additional loans. But as per traditional theory of capital structure, debt is cheaper than equity capital only within reasonable or acceptable limit. Beyond that acceptable limit the lending becomes riskier (Pandey, 2013: 346). Kester (1986) and Rajan and Zingalas (1995) found a negative relationship between profitability and debt/asset ratios. The following hypothesis is formulated and tested:
H2- There is a significant negative relationship between Debt to equity and Efficiency.
3.5.2. Asset Quality
The bank assets include current assets, fixed assets, loan and advances to customers and banks and other investments. Loan and advances is the major asset of the banks that generates a sizeable share of bank’s income. The loan portfolio quality has direct bearing on efficiency of the banks. Hence, the asset quality of a bank is measured through: