Corporate Governance and Performance of Banking Firms: Evidence from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, and Malaysia

Abstract

Corporate governance still becomes a major issue during the post-financial crisis period in Asian emerging market, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Malaysia. Particularly, the financial institutions have implemented corporate governance reforms to enhance the protection of shareholders and stakeholders interest. The consequences emerge as it allows for greater monitoring especially by the shareholders. The objective of this study is to measure the corporate governance and performance in banking sectors in particular, which is determining by the corporate governance mechanisms. In the last part, this study attempts to identify whether there exist any differences in the monitoring mechanisms of banking firms and non-banking firms. This study found that only the foreign shareholder which is represent of the ownerships monitoring mechanisms are significantly negatively related with corporate performance measures in the banking firms in Asian emerging markets. Second, the Internal Control Monitoring Mechanisms showed the insignificant relationship with corporate performance, but only one of the internal control monitoring mechanisms which is CEO duality provides evidence in order to explain the relationship better. Third, the disclosure monitoring mechanisms through the big 4 external auditor is significantly related to corporate performance, instead of the big 3 rating agency. Last, there are similarities between bank and non-bank in terms of corporate governance monitoring mechanisms.