GENDER DIFFERENCES OF MANAGING BANKS' CREDIT PORTFOLIO

The article aimed to demonstrate whether the quality of decision-making on lending to clients in the small and medium-sized business sector is influenced by the gender of the approvers or their direct motivation caused by share on business results. The motivation for this research were the studies conducted after the last global financial crisis, mostly in the US and Europe, to a lesser extent in the Czech Republic. Their authors tend to conclude that women show better credit risk management than men and that direct managers' engagement in business results and profits generates a higher susceptibility to risky, erroneous decisions. The research was carried out on one of the major banks operating in the Czech Republic, on a nationwide sample of workers with the loan approval authority in the segment of small and medium-sized firms. The decision of the approvers was, based on a random selection of about 1/3 of all their decisions, subject to control over three consecutive years. The obtained data were analysed by ANOVA, which did not prove the dependence of the decision quality on the gender or the direct motivation of the approver on business results. The research and its results have opened up scope for further research on the issue with a focus on a qualitative analysis of the nature and severity of the mistakes in terms of gender, job position, the level of authorization power and, last but not least, the unequal representation of women in the management of domestic banks.