An Assessment of Factors Affecting Banks’ Risk Exposure in North Central Nigeria

Abstract

The recent ethics of bank management have highlighted the need to balance between liquidity, asset, liability, capital adequacy, credit and interest rates risks, in order to mitigate against their loss in earnings. Consequently, the factors that may affect these risks are significant indicators to invent appropriate strategies for better bank management. It is therefore the rationale of this study to identify the factors that add to the risks that are constantly faced by commercial banks in North Central Zone of Nigeria. The factor analysis conducted indicated that liquidity and interest, domestic market, international market, business operation and credit were the factors affecting banks’ risk exposure. For this reason, banks in the zone have to critically consider these factors in formulating an effective risk management strategy that can effectively curtail any possibility of loss in income that may ultimately led to bank’s collapse.

Keywords: Bank risk, Market risk, Factor analysis, North Central Zone.