"Which public policies and ownership structures enhance the governance of banks? This paper constructs a new database on the ownership of banks internationally and then assesses the ramifications of ownership, shareholder protection laws, and supervisory/regulatory policies on bank valuations. Except in a few countries with very strong shareholder protection laws, banks are not widely held, but rather families or the State tend to control banks. We find that (i) larger cash flow rights by the controlling owner boosts valuations, (ii) stronger shareholder protection laws increase valuations, and (iii) greater cash flow rights mitigate the adverse effects of weak shareholder protection laws on bank valuations. These results are consistent with the views that expropriation of minority shareholders is important internationally, that laws can restrain this expropriation, and concentrated cash flow rights represent an important mechanism for governing banks. Finally, the evidence does not support the view that empowering official supervisory and regulatory agencies will increase the market valuation of banks"--NBER website

This Toolkit provides an overall framework with practical tools and information to help policymakers design and implement corporate governance reforms for state-owned enterprises. It concludes with guidance on managing the reform process, in particular how to prioritize and sequence reforms, build capacity, and engage with stakeholders.

This book presents an overview of corporate governance and risk management, analyzing their interdependence and particularly their relevance in banking. It discusses current trends in corporate governance, such as stakeholder management, financial performance and the cost of equity, compensation schemes, board structures and shareholder activism. Further, it reviews some of the most important regulatory changes introduced since the latest financial crisis and highlights their impact on the annual reports of the banks under analysis. Lastly, the book assesses and compares major banks in Brazil and Germany with special emphasis on the aspects mentioned above, revealing surprising similarities between the banking systems of these otherwise disparate countries.

Abstract: "The authors jointly analyze the static, selection, and dynamic effects of domestic, foreign, and state ownership on bank performance. They argue that it is important to include indicators of all the relevant governance effects in the same model. "Nonrobustness" checks (which purposely exclude some indicators) support this argument. Using data from Argentina in the 1990s, their strongest and most robust results concern state ownership. State-owned banks have poor long-term performance (static effect), those undergoing privatization had particularly poor performance beforehand (selection effect), and these banks dramatically improved following privatization (dynamic effect. However, much of the measured improvement is likely due to placing nonperforming loans into residual entities, leaving "good" privatized banks."--World Bank web site.

New research suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain differences in financial development. This paper empirically assesses two theories of why legal origin influences financial development. First, the political' channel stresses that (i) legal traditions differ in the priority they give to the rights of individual investors vis- ...-vis the state and (ii) this has repercussions for the development of property rights and financial markets. Second, the adaptability' channel holds that (i) legal traditions differ in their ability to adjust to changing commercial circumstances and (ii) legal systems that adapt quickly to minimize the gap between the contracting needs of the economy and the legal system's capabilities will foster financial development more effectively than would more rigid legal traditions. We use historical comparisons and cross-country regressions to assess the validity of these two channels. We find that legal origin matters for financial development because legal traditions differ in their ability to adapt efficiently to evolving economic conditions.

Handbook of Microfinance addresses the gap between clients who are benefiting from access to financial services via MFIs, and the potential market, which remains underserved or untapped. This gap can be attributed to a "mismatch" between what consumers, or potential clients, demand and what MFIs offer in terms of financial products. The scope of the book is wide. It includes successes and failures, main challenges and debates, methodologies for impact evaluation via random trials, leading trends in Asia versus Latin America, main efforts in Africa, the importance of value chains in Central America, ethical and gender issues, savings, microinsurance, governance, commercialization trends and the potential advantages and disadvantages of it. Lastly it features main lessons from informal finance and 19th-century credit cooperatives addressing the above-mentioned mismatch.

After the global financial crisis, the topic of corporate governance has been gaining momentum in accounting and finance literature since it may influence firm and bank management in many countries. Corporate Governance and Its Implications on Accounting and Finance provides emerging research exploring the implications of a good corporate governance system after global financial crises. Corporate governance mechanisms may include board and audit committee characteristics, ownership structure, and internal and external auditing. This book is devoted to all topics dealing with corporate governance including corporate governance characteristics, board diversity, CSR, big data governance, bitcoin governance, IT governance, and governance disclosure, and is ideally designed for executives, BODs, financial analysts, government officials, researchers, policymakers, academicians, and students.

This book represents a response to a relative lack of academic research into corporate governance and especially corporate governance disclosure in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Specifically, the author explores recent developments in corporate governance disclosure produced by Libyan commercial banks. Along with other corporate governance mechanisms, disclosure plays an essential role in discharging accountability to and protecting shareholders, enhancing corporate performance and reducing the risk of financial crises. In order to improve corporate governance disclosure, it is necessary to understand the context in which it takes place. The MENA countries have unique characteristics, and those involved in the Arab Spring have been affected in different ways. This book provides up to date research into corporate governance disclosure in the context of Libya following the Arab Spring. The banking sector plays a crucial role in the Libyan economy and has specific characteristics which make corporate governance more important than in other sectors, yet research in this sector is rare. Furthermore, the banking sector in Libya has seen significant corporate governance reforms in recent years. As one of the most significant oil producing countries, Libya’s political and business environments have been dramatically affected by the Arab Spring. The author discusses how banks have responded to these reforms and the ways in which their corporate governance disclosure has evolved.

Corporate governance in financial institutions has come under the spotlight since the banking crisis in the UK in 2008-9. In many respects, the banking business raises unique problems for corporate governance that are not found in other corporate secto