Effects of Chief Executive Officer attributes on financial distress in commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

This study aimed at examining the effects of CEO attributes on financial distress in commercial banks in Kenya. The prevalence of financial distress among financial institutions has been of concern to many stakeholders around the world. In the Kenyan context, commercial banks have been experiencing financial distress. Although other studies assessed in this research did not focus on the extent of financial distress in commercial banks in Kenya while categorizing them in bank tiers, this study bridges the knowledge gap and provides an in-depth review on the subject. The thesis adopted descriptive research design. Secondary data was examined and presented using descriptive statistics, univariate analysis and multi discriminant analysis. The findings present that there is presence of financial distress in both tier II and tier III commercial banks in Kenya at 18% in 2016. The main factor that was found to influence the extent of financial distress in commercial banks was CEO tenure. The research contributes to the knowledge on the extent of financial distress in commercial banks in Kenya and provides a basis for other scholars seeking to undertake research on financial distress. The study also gives pertinent recommendation to key stakeholders in commercial banks on how to identify and mitigate instances of financial distress. The Central Bank of Kenya is advised to regularly monitor commercial banks to identify and curb cases of financial distress. The board of directors are advised to evaluate CEO attributes especially CEO office tenure in their contracts to curb cases of financial distress. Since the study used Altman Z-Score Model, the findings on the extent of financial distress were limited to this model.