Effect of Corporate Governance on Financial Performance of Listed Insurance Firms in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction - The mechanism through which organisations are directed and managed is known as corporate governance. The impact of corporate governance elements on the financial performance of Sri Lankan listed insurance corporations is investigated throughout the study. This study examines the relationship between corporate governance variables (board size, board composition, board meetings, and audit committee size) and controllable variables (firm age, firm size, growth, and leverage) among performance of the insurance firms. The firm performance is measured using Return of Equity (ROE) and Return on Assets (ROA). The population for this study is listed insurance firms on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE where the sample consisted of 11 insurance firms.  For the analysis various tests like descriptive analysis, multiple linear regression, Pearson correlation, and collinearity statistics have been performed using IBM SPSS (version 23) software.  Secondary sources of data used for the analysis expands from 2015 to 2019. According to this study, corporate governance impacts the financial success of insurance businesses in Sri Lanka. The 36.70% relationship between firm performance ROE and the 26.80 per cent relationship between firm performance ROAs is determined by the independent variables of corporate governance (board size, board composition, board meetings, and board audit committee size) as well as controllable variables (firm age, firm size, growth, and leverage). The study posits, through the Pearson correlation, that there is a positive relationship between board size, board composition, board meetings, firms age, firm size growth, and leverage with ROE and only the audit committee size is negatively related to the ROE. With the ROA board size, board composition, board meetings firm size, growth is positively related while audit committee size, firm age, and leverage variables have a negative relationship. This study's findings will be useful for insurance companies to manage their corporate governance elements towards the profitability. They can be critically concerned about the elements of board size, board composition, board meetings and audit committee size and controlling elements of firm age, firm size, growth, and leverage. Based on the elements top tier management can make accurate and efficient decisions on listed insurance companies.

Keywords: Corporate Governance (CG), Board Size, Board Composition, Return of Equity (ROE), Return on Assets (ROA)