The Lahore Journal
of Business

The Lahore Journal
of Business

Lahore Journal of Business

(HEC recognized journal in “Y” category)

The Lahore Journal of Business is aimed at providing a specialized forum for dissemination of qualitative and quantitative research in various areas of business administration. The LJB invites researchers, policy makers and analysts to submit original theoretical and empirical papers that explore and contribute to the understanding of various areas in the business domain. The Journal aims at bringing together state-of-art research findings, particularly from emerging markets, in various business disciplines including (but not limited to) accounting, banking, management, marketing, finance, investments, human resource management and organizational behavior.

Mirza Asjad Baig, Muhammad Ali Usman and Mirza Owais Baig

Investment banks play a vital role in the economic development of a country through their impact on capital and money markets. In developing countries, they promote and support business investors in bringing about economic stability. The investment banking industry faced significant challenges as a result of the financial crisis in 2008. This study presents a detailed financial analysis of the recent performance of seven investment banks in Pakistan for the period 2007–11 with the help of financial ratios. The banks were assessed across several perspectives: profitability, efficiency, liquidity, leverage, and other financial measures such as institution size. Our findings show that all banks faced a significant squeeze on profitability, although the smaller banks performed better overall. This implies that successful performance does not necessarily depend on economies of scale.