Effects of board structures on bank performance

The financial and administrative structures of the banks, which have great role in the economy, and the characteristics of the board of directors are of great importance. Some structures of the board, such as the number of members, the ratio of independent members, the rate of female members, the CEO-chairman duality, are primarily examined in the developed countries such as USA and England. This issue started to be dealt with on the basis of the economy of the banks in the emerging countries such as Turkey. This study investigates the relationship between board structures and financial performances of the banks in Turkish banking system. As widely used in international studies, in this study the number of members of the board of directors, the number of members of the board of directors with political connections, the number of independent members of the board of directors, the number of female members of the board and the number of foreign members of the board of directors are used as independent variables. Also, in this study asset profitability (ROA) and equity profitability (ROE) used as a dependent variables and bank size, bank capital and lending level are used as a bank specific control variable. Within the scope of the analysis, panel data regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the variables and various relationships were found between the board structures and performance variables. Similarly, various relationships were found between bank-specific control variables and performance variables. Keywords: Corporate Governance, Board Characteristics, Finance, Banking, Financial Performance