The purpose of this study is to investigate banking performance and efficiency from a bibliometric and thematic perspective. Data analysis techniques such as thematic clustering, performance analysis, and bibliometric analysis were utilized to review 1548 publications from the Scopus database. The most influential papers, co-occurrence of keywords, co-citations, prolific authors, important institutions, countries, co-citation analysis, scientific mapping, performance evaluation, bibliographic coupling, and the scientific production of publications indexed in the Scopus database between 2009 and 2023 were all examined in this study. Numerous other topics were also examined. The study employed VOSviewer as a tool for performance analysis and thematic clustering. Also, Biblioshiny on R studio was used for data analysis. A PRISMA statement was used to define the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Regarding documents published, 2023 was the most productive year, with 190 articles. The United States of America and “Islamic Azad University (Iran)” are the most impactful nations and universities. The “Journal of Banking and Finance” was the most productive. The authors also identified six research theme clusters about the effectiveness and performance of banks. It gives academic direction and information on the current status of the study and the various factors impacting the body of literature on the effectiveness and performance of banks. It also outlines possible directions for further research in this area. For the first time, a thorough performance analysis and scientific mapping of banking efficiency and performance that takes into account all pertinent banking efficiency and performance factors are presented in one study.