This paper investigates the link between the board of directors’ characteristics and bank’s financial performance in a wide sample of Italian banks. The analysis is among the first and few to study jointly directors’ qualitative characteristics and board composition in banks and the effects of these two features of quality and diversity on performance. Results show a significant impact of diversity and financial skills on Roa and Roe, while results on cost efficiency appear less sharp. In terms of policy implications, our results confirm not only the need for supervisors’ attention to corporate governance standards for banks, but also the delivery of guidelines for board of directors’ requirements, both for competence and skills and diversity.
Interested in this paper?
Buy the issue