Effects of Risk Assessment, Control Environment and Control Activities on Performance of Listed Banks in Ghana

Abstract

Globally, internal controls serve many important purposes for public private and public help organizations. There is however an increasing call for better and improved internal control systems especially in firms that are listed on public market. However, internal control systems, irrespective of how well conceived and implemented cannot provide absolute assurance of management and boards regarding the achievement of objectives. This research focused on the three components of internal control systems namely control environment, risk assessment, and control activities. This study therefore formulated four objectives and investigated how risk assessment, control activities, and control environment affects the performance of Ghanaian banks. In this quantitative study, representatives from twelve listed banks were engaged. Descriptive and regression analysis was performed on the field data. The study result shows while Risk assessment has a strong significant effect on financial performance, Control environment and Control activities, have a weak significant effect on financial performance. The practical implication of the study is that, when assessing the performance of banks, risk areas must be examined critically to reduce or eliminate their impacts on bank performance.