CORPORATE GOVERNANCE OF BANKS – PRESENT AND PERSPECTIVES

The present financial crisis revealed serious deficiencies in the banking corporate governance and emphasized the need of major improvements in their corporate governance techniques. In this respect, we believe that it is crucial for the banks to stop focusing on what they considered important before the crisis, namely on shareholders interested in obtaining big profits, and to concentrate on improving the relationships with the stakeholders and on regaining of the trust in the reliability of the banking system.By using adequate research methods, namely non-interactive observation, document analysis, comparison, interpretative methods and the empirical method of the survey, this article is intended to: present the concept of corporate governance in general and characteristics of this concept in the banking system; to present the new corporate governance regulatory frame in general and from the viewpoint of the supervisors of the financial stability; to discuss the characteristics of the corporate governance of banks in Romania, highlighting the structures of the corporate governance in the banking activity, remuneration policies, stakeholders’ position, transparency and ethics; and finally to present a series of conclusion regarding the lessons that the present financial crisis can teach us in order to consolidate the corporate governance of banks.