Achieving Good Corporate Governance through Effective Audit Committees in Commercial Banks: Evidence from India

The Audit Committee plays a unique role in the governance process; indeed it is a role that is being widely debated. The main purpose of the paper is to empirically examine the contribution of Audit Committee to Corporate Governance in a corporate. The study attempts to show the Indian experience in meeting the governance norms of Audit Committee as per Clause 49 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)‘s Listing Agreement. For the purpose of analysis, Public Sector Banks and Private Sector Banks operating in India have been studied; Private Sector Banks are further classified into Old Private Sector Banks and New Private Sector Banks. The research is based on questionnaire based survey conducted among audit committees‘ members, directors of internal audit departments as well as members of board of directors in these banks in addition to a number of external auditors. The results of the study indicate that effectiveness of Audit Committees play a very important role in ensuring Good Corporate Governance.