Banks total funding costs will increase accordingly if their equity ratio is increased, higher equity ratio makes a bank’s debt more safe and lowers the required return on debt. Taking these into account the Modigliani-Miller implied that a bank’s total cost of funding should not be affected by the bank’s equity ratio.
This study is conducted to investigate the effect of financial leverage through debt ratio and equity ratio on return on equity (ROE). For the analysis the simple liner regression cover a period 2008-2011, used to examine the extent that the financial leverage effect ROE among Jordanian Banking sector. The study found that the Jordan Islamic Bank has the highest debt ratio, and the Capital Bank of Jordan has the lowest Debt ratio, and Capital Bank of Jordan has the highest equity ratio, and the Jordan Islamic Bank has the lowest equity ratio, also the Capital Bank of Jordan has the highest ROE, and the Jordan Kuwait Bank has the lowest ROE.
The study revealed that there is significant effect of debt ratio on dependent variable return on equity (ROE), and there is significant effect of equity ratio on dependent variable return on equity (ROE), and there is significant effect of independent variable financial leverage through debt ratio and equity ratio on dependent variable return on equity (ROE) among Jordanian Banking sector.
Keywords: Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), Debt Ratio, Equity Ratio, ROE
