Overcoming the comparative confusion of the audit committee’s impact on the financial performance of conventional and Islamic banks: An international evidence in a framework of agency theory

Abstract

Based on the banking and governance literature, the impacts of the audit committee quality on the financial performance of conventional and Islamic banks are mixed, unstable and sometimes contradictory. In this study, we consulted deeply the theoretical foundations of the audit committee quality on the financial performance of conventional and Islamic banks to solve the ambiguity of comparison in a framework of agency theory. Measures of financial performance and audit committee determinants are collected from 30 countries. Under the panel data estimations, data were collected from 112 banks of each type that have published their reports regularly during the period (2010-2019). Overall, we obtained 1120 bank-year observations in each sub-sample. The results showed that the audit committee in conventional banks negatively affected their financial performance. However, in Islamic banks, it revealed a vague impact because of his secondary role.