Article Details
  • Published Online:
    July  2025
  • Product Name:
    The IUP Journal of Accounting Research & Audit Practices
  • Product Type:
    Article
  • Product Code:
    IJARAP130725
  • DOI:
    10.71329/IUPJARAP/2025.24.3.259-286
  • Author Name:
    Meena Saini, P Natarajan and Aleena Jose
  • Availability:
    YES
  • Subject/Domain:
    Finance
  • Download Format:
    PDF
  • Pages:
    259-286
Volume 24, Issue 3, July-September 2025
Assessing the Operational Efficiency of Indian NBFCs Under SBR Framework: A DEA Approach
Abstract

The paper evaluates the efficiency of Indian non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) within the regulatory framework introduced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2021. While extensive research has focused on bank efficiency, limited studies exist on NBFCs, despite their crucial role in financial intermediation. Scale-based regulation (SBR) framework has intensified regulatory scrutiny on upper and middle layer NBFCs, necessitating an evaluation of their efficiency in resource utilization. The study employs data envelopment analysis (DEA) to assess the efficiency of 35 NBFCs from the upper and middle layers over a 10-year period (2015-2024). Banker-Charnes-Cooper (BCC) outputoriented model is used to evaluate overall technical efficiency (OTE), pure technical efficiency (PTE) and scale efficiency (SE). Secondary data are analyzed using Stata. The findings reveal significant inefficiencies in resource utilization, with an average OTE score of 0.315, indicating a 68.5% inefficiency gap. While SE is relatively higher, low PTE scores highlight managerial inefficiencies as a primary concern. The efficiency trend showed a decline from 2014 to 2019, followed by a slight improvement post-2020. Efficiency rankings show that PPW is the most efficient NBFC, while SS ranks the lowest.

Introduction

The Indian financial system is essential for economic growth, as it effectively channels savings, supports capital formation, and ensures efficient distribution of financial resources (Pathak, 2014).