Corporate Governance in Indian Banking Sector: A Review of Related Literature

Abstract

Weak governance framework in Indian public sector banks has paralyzed their performance with declining profitability and deteriorating asset quality. In order to tackle the governance issues in Public Sector Banks (PSBs), Indian government established Banks Board Bureau (BBB) in April 2016 to revamp the existing governance structure in PSBs. However, the issue management framework of establishing BBB is not immune to several challenges and has not been able to achieve its desired objectives. This paper looks at the weak governance issue in PSBs from an issue management perspective by using the famous Jones and Chase issue management framework. In light of this framework, the paper makes several recommendations to effectively address the governance challenges in PSBs in India. The findings of this paper may be useful for other emerging economies facing similar governance issues in their banking sector.

While several committees have examined and suggested ways to improve corporate governance in banks in India, this study makes an attempt to prepare a benchmark index for the board composition aspect of corporate governance. A comparison between the indices for public sector banks with private sector banks reveals that differences in governance structures cannot be explained fully in terms of ownership only. This is a welcome feature, as with some efforts on the part of the majority shareholder, corporate governance in all the banks can be brought on par with the best-performing bank, by ensuring greater compliance with corporate governance benchmarks.

Accountability and also enhances firms performance. It eliminates the conflicts arising from the separation of ownership and control. This aim  of the present study  is  to examine the  extent of  applicability of  corporate governance  practices in  Indian banking sector  with the  help of previous studies and to suggest some new areas for research.