The financial performance of Lebanese banks up to the financial crisis: do audit committee characteristics and ownership concentration matter?

PurposeThe focus on corporate governance has increased after the financial collapses of several banks worldwide, such as Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank in the USA, and the failure of the Lebanese banking sector. This study examines the impact of audit committee (AC) characteristics on financial performance and investigates the moderating effect of ownership concentration (OC) on the associations between AC characteristics and profitability.Design/methodology/approachThe current research is carried out based on 211 Lebanese banks' annual reports, focusing on the period from 2012 to 2021. The ordinal least squares (OLS) and the hierarchical multiple regression analysis were adopted to test the study's hypotheses.FindingsThe outcomes reveal that AC size, AC frequency of meetings, and banks' size (control variable) positively affect financial performance; however, OC does not moderate the associations between the AC characteristics and banks' profitability.Originality/valueAccording to the researcher's knowledge, no prior study has investigated the moderating effect of OC on these associations. Moreover, the current study contributes to the literature that documented mixed and inconsistent results regarding the direct associations between AC characteristics and financial performance.