TIME: Tuesday, February 1, 2022, at 10.30
PLACE: ONLINE (Teams)

Denis Davydov (University of Vaasa) - Who runs Russian banks? Economic policy uncertainty, executive characteristics, and bank liquidity hoarding

Co-authors: Tatiana Garanina (University of Vaasa) and Laurent Weill (University of Strasbourg)

Abstract:
We present unique data on governance in Russian financial institutions. Despite the recent introduction of the corporate governance code, we observe large cross-sectional differences in the composition of supervisory and executive boards of directors of Russian banks. We begin analyzing the data by exploring the role of executive characteristics in bank behavior. Specifically, we assess the impact of CEO gender, age, tenure, and nationality on bank liquidity hoarding given the level of uncertainty of economic policy in Russia. Preliminary findings indicate that bank CEO gender has a significant effect on liquidity hoarding. In line with general predictions, we find gender-based differences in overall bank liquidity hoarding. However, during periods of high economic policy uncertainty, banks with female CEOs hoard less liquidity than male-led banks.