Sandra Kendo
Researcher in economy
sandra.kendo@univ-catholille.fr
Tel: 03 61 76 75 67 / (+33) 3 61 76 75 67
Research areas
Banking economics, information asymmetry, credit risk, systemic risk, credit supply and demand, role of bank asset size, financial performance, social performance, financial stability and banking competition, microfinance.
Sandra Kendo is a research professor and economist in the Smart and Sustainable Cities Unit of the Faculty of Management, Economics and Science. She is pursuing her research in Banking Economics in the areas of information asymmetries, financial risk management and performance of financial institutions. Two research themes have occupied her since the end of her thesis:
- The impact of the increase in the size of bank assets on the efficiency, financial and social performance of financial institutions.
The increase in the size of bank assets has been accelerated by the processes of bank consolidation, implemented in the 1990s, in both developed and developing economies. The focus of her study is on the development of the banking sector in developing countries. This two-dimensional banking sector is characterized by the coexistence of formal banking actors (commercial banks) and semi-formal and informal banking actors (microfinance institutions). The size of the assets of these financial institutions is defined according to the endogenous characteristics of the institution (endogenous growth model) and the defined client/product portfolio objectives (evolution of the risk/profitability ratio).
- The role of banking competition on credit and systemic risks.
The banking sector in developing countries has to deal with a combination of commercial banks and microfinance institutions. At the end of the 1990s and during the 2000s, there was an increase in the commercialization of microfinance activities, which emphasized the profit approach to the detriment of the social approach. The formal banking activity, which is mainly developed around less risky clients, is dominated by the actions of the large commercial banks. On the other hand, the semi-formal and informal credit activity is dominated by the action of large microfinance institutions. Considering the theory of contestable markets and the growing importance of commercialization of credit activity, in each of the identified market segments, commercial banks and microfinance institutions appear as potential and formidable competitors. This real bank competition impacts not only the client/bank relationship, but also the risk of credit default and the financial stability of the system.