ABSTRACT

Commercial banks play a critical role in economic growth and development, income generation and job creation especially in developing countries. With the increasing trend of sudden corporate failures in both global and local context, shareholders and management are increasingly becoming more concerned with the factors that affect financial performance of firms. The Banking sector in Kenya is an important sector whose performance is instrumental in the economic growth and development. The study therefore sought to determine the effects of firm characteristics: the period of operation of the firm, the asset base of the firm, market size and board characteristics, on the financial performance of quoted commercial banks in Kenya. It was guided by the following specific objectives: to ascertain the effect of period of operation, asset base, market size and board characteristics on financial performance of Quoted commercial banks in Kenya. This study adopted the descriptive research design and was a survey of the eleven commercial banks listed on the Nairobi Stock exchange. The population of the study was all commercial banks in Kenya and the target population was eleven, the quoted commercial banks on the NSE. Census sampling method was used to select a sample. The study sample was eleven. The study used secondary data obtained from the companies audited financial statements, management reports and the banks ', NSE and CBK websites, data recorded on a secondary data collection sheet and analyzed using the multi regression analysis with the use of the Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings were presented through figures and tables. The study found out that taking all other independent variables at zero, a unit increase in period of operation will lead to a -0.04 decrease in financial performance of the quoted commercial banks in Kenya. A unit increase in the asset base will lead to a 0.122 increase in financial performance, also a unit increase in market size will lead to a -0.268 decrease in financial performance while a unit increase in board characteristics will lead to a 0.389 increase in financial performance of quoted commercial banks in Kenya. This implies that the banks improve their financial performance by investing in more assets and focusing on the board characte1istics. The study also found out that taking all factors (period of operation, asset base, market size and board characteristics) constant at zero, the financial performance of the quoted commercial banks will be 15.15. The study findings indicate that the firm characteristics under consideration had P values greater than 0.005, based on this the study accepts the null hypothesis and concludes that the firm characteristics do not have a significant effect on the financial performance of quoted commercial banks in Kenya. The study recommends that managers need to analyze financial performance over time and establish ideal· asset base, board characteristics, market size and develop relevant strategies to maximize productivity and improve performance of the quoted commercial banks in Kenya. Further studies should be done to investigate the effects of firm characteristics on the remaining commercial banks not quoted at the NSE and other sectors of the economy. Researchers, academicians and students should carry out studies to investigate possible firm characteristics and factors that affect financial performance of commercial banks in Kenya.