On Bank Governance in Developing Countries: Assessment of Egypt

Although bank corporate governance is of paramount importance there has been less research and analysis of this area when compared with corporate governance research directed at non-financial organisations. While this problem is more evident in the corporate governance literature addressing developing countries, no previous research had assessed bank governance in Egypt. This is particularly worrying as a number of Egyptian bank failures were partially blamed on weak corporate governance. Moreover, as Egypt is a bank based country, banks have a fundamental role in the promotion of good corporate governance in the Egyptian business environment; obviously carrying out this role should mean that Egyptian banks be themselves models for good corporate governance. This paper aims to assess bank corporate governance reform in Egypt and identify further important reforms to enhance corporate governance practices within this vital sector of the Egyptian economy. Firstly, the paper discusses corporate governance emergence showing the importance of good corporate governance. Secondly, it defines corporate governance from a banking perspective and discusses particular reasons of importance in banking. Thirdly, the paper analyses how weak corporate governance led to the 1990s bank failures in the Egyptian Banking Sector (EBS). Finally, the paper assesses the Egyptian banking sector corporate governance reform efforts and concludes with further reforms required to enhance bank corporate governance in Egypt