Application of static Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on the time series data relating to a set of decision-making units fails to capture important interactions from period to period. Window analysis is a model structure which provides a more robust treatment to the movement in efficiency over time. The present study thus makes use of the window analysis for comparing the intertemporal efficiency behavior of 28 public sector banks and 12 private sector banks for the period 2001-02 to 2005-06. The results suggest that the mean efficiency scores of the in-sample public and private sector commercial banks for the period 2001-02 to 2005-06 exhibit a secular declining trend.

The onset of banking sector reforms in India resulted in some major structural changes in the commercial banking sector. The relaxation of entry norms by the RBI in the early 1990s for the private sector banks resulted in the entry of a host of new private sector commercial banks. Further, reforms in the branch licensing policy provided more freedom to the commercial banks as to the formulation of locational strategies. Further, the withdrawal of administrative controls on deposit and lending rates also gave the commercial banks adequate freedom in pricing their deposits. At the same time, the revolution in information and communication technology prompted the commercial banks to invest heavily in technological upgradation.

It is in this context that the present study seeks to evaluate the performance of 40 Indian commercial banks for the period 2001-02 to 2005-06 using the Window Analysis developed by Klopp (1985).

Bank Management Journal, Indian Banks, Asset Liability Management, Data Filtering, Least Absolute Deviation, Decision-Making Group, Commercial Banks, Ordinary Least Square, Banking Industry, Kenyan Banks, Least Squares Regression, Mutual Fund Industry, Linear Programming, Financial Markets, Capital Required Adequacy Ratio, Public Sector Banks.