This study examines whether audit committee effectiveness affects bank risk-taking and risk management
effectiveness. We find that banks with long board tenure audit committees have lower total risk
and idiosyncratic risk, and banks with busy directors on their audit committees have higher total risk
and idiosyncratic risk. These suggest that high audit committee effectiveness may constrain bank risktaking
activities. We also find that firm performance is more positively associated with bank risk for
banks with long board tenure, more female audit committee members, or large size audit committees
than for other banks, consistent with the notion that audit committee effectiveness may increase risk
management effectiveness. However, this finding should be interpreted cautiously as it is contrary to
the results on audit committee busyness.