Examining the relationship between CEO remuneration and performance of major commercial banks in South Africa

Abstract

The relationship between CEO remuneration and firm performance continues to receive much attention. Although the focus of most of the studies is across sectors, attention is increasingly being directed towards the banking industry. At the same time, controversy around what is deemed excessive remuneration of CEOs in the light of not so impressive firm performance across sectors continues. The 2008 global financial crisis and subsequent problems in the banking industry have increased interest in the dynamics of CEO remuneration and bank performance. This study, which examines the relationship between CEO remuneration and bank performance in South Africa, aims to bring a new perspective to the on-going research and debate. The data used is for the years 2008 – 2013, and a purposive sampling method was employed to select a sample frame that consists of five major commercial banks in South Africa. The results suggest that not all measurement instruments used confirmed that a relationship between CEO remuneration and bank performance existed. In the overall, the results of the study do show that the remuneration of the CEO in the banking industry is such that it does have a significant influence on the performance of a bank.