← Search

Journal of Financial Intermediation Vol. 21 No. 2 2012

Bank board structure and performance: Evidence for large bank holding companies

Renée B. Adams1; Hamid Mehran2

1 The University of Queensland · 2 Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Abstract

The subprime crisis highlights how little we know about bank governance. This paper addresses a long-standing gap in the literature by analyzing the relationship between board governance and performance using a sample of banking firm data that spans 34years. We find that board independence is not related to performance, as measured by a proxy for Tobin’s Q. However, board size is positively related to performance. Our results are not driven by M&A activity. But, we provide new evidence that increases in board size due to additions of directors with subsidiary directorships may add value as BHC complexity increases. We conclude that governance regulation should take unique features of bank governance into account.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfi.2011.09.002
Volume
21
Issue
2
Pages
243-267
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref bibtex:phds-export.bib

Cite