Journal of accounting, management, economics, and business digital banking and bank performance

Abstract

Purpose - This study examines how digital banking influences the financial performance of commercial banks. The paper focuses on how digital banking affects profitability, cost efficiency, operational efficiency, customer growth, non-interest income, competitiveness, and selected risk dimensions. As mobile banking, internet banking, digital payments, analytics, and automated service platforms become central to banking strategy, the key issue is no longer whether digital banking matters, but under what conditions it creates measurable financial value. Methodology - The study adopts a comparative analytical desk-review design. Recent peer-reviewed studies and institutional reports on commercial banks, digital transformation, and bank performance were reviewed and interpreted through a common indicator framework. The analysis synthesizes findings on return on assets, return on equity, cost-to-income ratio, fee-based income, customer growth, and digital risk to explain both convergent and divergent outcomes. Findings - The evidence indicates a broadly positive but conditional relationship between digital banking and commercial bank performance. The strongest and most consistent gains appear in cost efficiency, operating productivity, customer reach, and revenue diversification. Profitability gains are real but often delayed by high up-front investment, legacy-system complexity, cybersecurity spending, and uneven customer migration. Banks obtain the best outcomes when digital banking is combined with process redesign, data-enabled sales, governance discipline, and active risk management. Novelty - The article integrates recent evidence into a performance-channel framework that links digital banking to bank profitability through cost, revenue, customer, and resilience mechanisms rather than treating digitalization as a simple technology variable. Significance - The study is useful for bank managers, researchers, and regulators who need to evaluate whether digital transformation produces sustainable financial value in commercial banking.