1. Introduction to Foreign Expansion Decisions of Multinational Banks

In today’s increasing level of globalization, many banks have expanded their activities internationally to take advantage of new opportunities in different markets. As each extension strategy brings distinctive benefits and challenges, founding an optimal approach of internationalization plays a crucial role in making most of the profit while decreasing drawbacks in altering conditions. This study aims to explore the main entry strategies of multinational banks (MNBs) to distant markets to analyze optimal decisions on foreign expansion strategies by examining fundamental motivations in behind, and further effects of chosen approach. The systematic literature review methodology applied to this study to provide well-structured information about foreign expansion decisions of MNBs. The five main keywords researched in two designated databases to obtain the scope of the study. As a result of screening 141 papers from this search, 28 articles selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. There were three main inclusion criteria: relevancy of topic, timeframe, and language. After searching defined keywords, only related papers which conducted in last 15 years in English included in the scope of this project. As exclusion criteria, three main concerns are taken into consideration: quality, objectivity, and academic level. Thus, only papers published in recognized international journals included while biased and non-research papers excluded in this systematic review. The review scheme also designed on “Reasons-Phenomenon-Consequences” structure to show the logic behind applied strategies of MNBs in the overseas market.