The paper aims to investigate the linkage between some corporate governance mechanism such as board characteristics, ownership structure and corporate financial leverage in an emerging market, Egypt. To achieve the objectives of this study, we use a sample of 36 non-financial firms selected from the more actively traded 50 listed Egyptian firms in the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) covering the period from 2007 to 2011. Measures of corporate financial leverage employed are the total debt ratio, the long-term debt ratio and the short-term debt ratio. The explanatory variables of corporate characteristics are board size, outside non-executive directors, CEO duality, and board female proportion. The measures of ownership structure include managerial ownership, institutional ownership, block holder's ownership and governmental ownership. Similarly, the effect of some control variables like firm size, profitability, growth and tangibility has been also examined. The multiple regression models (OLS) were used to analyze the data. Results show that institutional ownership and governmental ownership are significantly positively related to corporate leverage, whereas board size, board female, and block holding are found to be significantly negatively correlated. Although Egyptian firms still have weak corporate governance mechanisms compared to firms in developing countries, the empirical findings suggest that board characteristics and ownership structure playing an important role in deciding the Egyptian corporate financial leverage.

Abstract:There is argument that the main reason behind the corporate failure is the engagement of banks in excessive risk taking. However, the existence literature provides conflicting evidence in this concern. The main objectives of this study is to investigate the influence of board characteristics on bank risk taking, by using Pooled Ordinary Least Squares regression techniques to test a sample of 27 Egyptian banks covering the period from 2006 to 2011. Measures of bank risk employed are the insolvency risk, credit risk and liquidity risk. The explanatory variables of board characteristics are board size, nonexecutive directors, CEO duality, female presence and, board qualifications. The control variables are bank size, debt ratio, and crisis. The results show that Board size is positively significant with the three measures of risks. Non-executive directors are negatively significant correlated with both insolvency and liquidity risk. CEO's duality is found positively significant with credit risk. Board female is negatively significant with insolvency and liquidity risk, while it is positively significant with credit risk. Board qualifications have no effect on the three measures of risks. The findings support the idea that board of director's characteristics is a determinant factor for bank risk taking.

Article HistoryThis study investigates the effect of corporate governance on banks' performance in Egypt. It tests the relationship between bank performance and selected factors of corporate governance mechanisms, namely the board size, non-executive directors, CEO duality, board female, board qualifications, and the block holders. Return on assets and return on equity are used as proxy for bank performance. The control variables used in this study are bank size, capital adequacy ratio, debt ratio, the real GDP growth, crisis and revolution. The study used financial data of 25 Egyptian banks covering a period from 2006 to 2014. I used Generalised Least Square (GLS) RandomEffects models to investigate for this relation to find that board size, CEO duality, capital adequacy ratio and bank size are positively affect the bank performance. Revolution has a significant negative correlation with ROA, indicating that Egyptian banks suffered significantly during the revolution period especially the local banks. Non-executive directors, women presentation, board qualifications, and the block ownership have no effect on bank performance. Despite Egyptian banks still have poor corporate governance compared to banks of developing countries, especially in transparency and disclosure; the empirical findings suggest that governance has an essential role in deciding the Egyptian banks' performance. Contribution/ Originality:This study contributes to the existence literature of corporate governance as it is one of the very few studies which have examined the effect of governance mechanisms on the Egyptian banks 'performance. The findings of this study will benefit the policy makers and bank regulators in Egypt and other emerging countries.

This paper aims to explain the elements that affect banks' profitability in the Egyptian banking sector during the period from 2006 to 2015. The researcher uses unbalanced panel annual data for 26 working banks in the Egyptian market. Generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimators are applied to define the most affected factors. Return on assets (ROE) and the return on equity (ROA) have been used as measurements of bank profitability. The findings of the study reveal that high profitability are associated with large bank size, large capital ratio and large operating income, while lower profitability is associated with higher non-interest income. As macroeconomic variables do affect profitability significantly, the researcher suggests that macroeconomic strategies that encourage low inflation and sustain growth rate, enhances loans expansion, boost banks' profitability.

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