Purpose: The purpose of this research is first,
to empirically examine if the appointment of females (Board Gender Diversity)
onto the corporate boards of UK financial institutions can improve the firm’s
value. The second purpose is to examine if having females on the boards of UK
financial institutions can impact the firm’s value during the pre/post global
financial crisis situation.

Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses secondary data obtained
from DataStream covering 63 financial institutions over a period of 12 years. A
number of additional statistical estimations, including Random Effects and
Fixed Effects, are conducted in order to test the robustness of the findings.

Findings: The outcome of this empirical research
shows that the presence of females on the corporate boards of UK financial
institutions has a positive and statistically significant relationship to the
firm’s value. Before the financial crisis era, that is, during the pre-crisis situation
(2000-2006), our evidence reveals a positive and statistically significant
impact on the firm’s value. This means that women contributed significantly to
the firm’s value. However, after the financial crisis period, the presence of
females on the board did not make any significant effect on the firm’s value. A
reasonable explanation may be that, even though the financial crisis was over
from 2009 to 2011, the entire UK economy was still experiencing an economic downturn and financial firms were no exception,
irrespective of whether there was female representation on any corporate board.
Overall, the findings are consistent with prior studies.

Originality/value: In spite of several research projects
on board gender diversity (BGD), this research is unique when compared to other
previous empirical works because, primarily, it will be the first time that
such research will empirically ascertain board gender diversity and firm value
in UK financial institutions and also during the pre/post financial crisis era.
This paper contributes to the corporate governance literature by offering new
insights on board diversity and firm’s value relationship. Overall, the results
will help to fill any missing gaps on gender diversity and firm’s value in UK
financial institutions.

Keywords: Gender diversity, firm’s value, UK,
financial institutions, financial crisis                                   

Paper type: Research
paper