Corporate Governance in Banks vs Bank Performance

Master's thesis is devoted to the study of the relationship between corporate governance, and in particular the ownership structure, and performance of European banks. The research is based on a sample containing quantitative and qualitative information on 400 public banks for the period from 2004 to 2016. The main objective of the work was to study the impact of the ownership structure: different types of investors (insiders, government and institutional investors) on bank results. The problem of endogeneity of ownership structure was proved using regression analysis, which further allowed improving the construction of the final model. The result of the study is a proof of statistically significant impact of corporate governance, in particular the ownership structure, on the risk and profitability of the Bank. In addition, it is demonstrated that the presence of institutional investors improves the quality of the loan portfolio, enhances profitability and increases the market value of the Bank. In conclusion, the results of the analysis provide evidence that different types of institutional investors have a specific individual impact on the performance of the Bank.