Though overall bank performance from July 2007 to December 2008 was the worst since at least the Great Depression … performance of banks during the credit crisis. More specifically, we investigate whether bank performance is related to bank …-level governance, country-level governance, country-level regulation, and bank balance sheet and profitability characteristics before …

representatives on corporate boards. If a banking relationship is a substitute for the stock market, then interaction with a bank … monopolistic control over access to external capital markets, then bank interests may conflict with those of other equityholders … structure of the firms' equity. We test for conflicts-of-interest in bank behavior and ask whether the relationship between …