Impact of Corporate Governance on Performance of a Firm: A Comparison between Commercial Banks and Financial Services Companies of Pakistan

There is vital role of corporate governance in the establishment of a competitive market; this is also suggested by the empirical studies that nations having good corporate governance practices tend to have strong growth in their corporate sectors. This study examines the impact of corporate governance on the performance of firm. The impact of Board attributes, Audit committee attributes and Ownership attributes was check on Return on Equity and Return on Assets of the Firms. The data related to the study was for Six years from 2009 to 2011 from 9 commercial banks and 9 financial service companies, listed in Karachi Stock Exchange based on convenience sampling. There were total 108 panel observations. Multiple regression (Panel least square) was used to analyze the data.The results show that Board Independence has significant impact on Return on Equity of the firm while Board size and Audit Committee Independence have significant impact on Return on Assets. Keywords:Board size, Audit Committee Independence, Board independence, Ownership Structure, Ownership concentration, Corporate governanc