Research Article Open Access

Bankers in the Board of Directors and the Debt Ratio of the Tunisian Companies

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effect of the presence of the banks in the Board of Directors on the firms’ debt ratio. Our results on a sample of 14 Tunisian companies listed on the Tunis stock market showed that the relationship between these two variables depends on the nature of administrators (lending and non-lending bankers, investors, and external bankers) and the probability of firms’ failure (Z-Score). Our results show that the presence of lenders in the board of directors has a negative impact (the control hypothesis) whereas the presence of non-lenders has a positive effect on the debt ratio (hypothesis of expertise suppliers). Moreover, it was found that there is a negative relationship between the presence of investors, of external directors and of debt. The same results were found when integrating the variable of failure measured by the Z-Score in the linear model.

NOURCHÈNE HAMZA HAKIM, HABIB AFFES

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