Abouhossein sees regulation cutting into bank profitability overall, with return on equity, a measure of profitability, falling to 12% from 19% for big banks.

FORBES: Swaps Split Could Cost Banks $85 Billion In Capital

The best measure of profitability, as I noted in my last post, is EVA margin.

FORBES: The Right Way to Measure Performance

The return on equity is a measure of profitability that looks at how much profit a company generates with each euro of capital invested by shareholders.

BBC: Societe Generale mulls hundreds of job cuts

With the latest technology, says Cho, the bank can measure the profitability of every branch employee and customer, mine its customer database and run sophisticated risk-management and credit-analysis programs.

FORBES: Korea's King Of Options

The shake-up and introduction of more own-brands helped gross margin - a measure of profitability - at JJB's retail division improve from 50.8% last year to 51.7% this year.

BBC: JJB Sports store

It's not a terrific measure of the profitability of commercial real estate companies.

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Looking at an alternative measure of local banks' profitability, the authors suggest that their competitors became sharper at serving several markets, rather than exploiting sheer scale.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

When it comes to comparing companies, both within and across industries, the only margin measure that provides reliable information about profitability is the EVA margin.

FORBES: Are You Being Misled By Profit Margins?

It is the first and only measure that can be used to compare and rank the profitability performance of companies in multiple industries.

FORBES: The Right Way to Measure Performance

But no margin measure by itself can provide a complete and reliable reading on profitability performance.

FORBES: The Right Way to Measure Performance