Bank Ownership and Performance: Evidence from Russia in a Post Crisis Period

Nurlan Orazalin, Monowar Mahmood and Keun Jung Lee

This paper explores relationship between ownership structures and operating performance of top Russian commercial banks. The findings revealed that foreign ownership has a positive impact on bank performance thus supporting the view that foreign investors bring best corporate governance practices to improve operating performance. However, it fails to find positive association between managerial ownership and operating performance. Similarly, the results show that state ownership is not related to operating performance. We believe that this study demonstrates that governance mechanisms utilized in transition markets related to ownership have some relevance and synergies to specific economies such as Russia.