Risk governance and bank risk-taking behavior: Evidence from Asian banks

Abstract We investigate how risk committee and Chief Risk Officer’s characteristics affect the risk-taking behavior of Asian commercial banks in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Using a sample of 1480 observations representing 185 banks from year 2010 to 2017, we find evidence of a negative and significant link between the risk governance mechanisms and risk-taking. This link is however more pronounced for privately-owned banks (POBs) than for state-owned banks (SOBs). Moreover, risk governance mechanisms positively influence the performance of POBs but have no impact on performance of SOBs. Overall, our results show the role of risk governance mechanisms in curbing excessive risk-taking and improving risk management effectiveness and performance of Asian banks, with some differences across the SOBs and POBs.