This study investigates the role of trustworthiness and governance quality in banks’ risk-taking behavior, along with other bank-specific and country-specific variables commonly studied. By employing a dataset comprising 202 banks in 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from 2011 to 2017 and a two-step generalized method of moments methodology, trustworthiness was tested directly in relation to risk-taking and indirectly through the quality of the channel of governance. Our results indicate that trustworthiness reduces risk-taking, whereas governance quality exacerbates the risk-taking behavior of MENA banks. However, the effect of trustworthiness on risk-taking changes with good governance, indicating the substitution effect of trust on risk-taking because of the existence of weak formal institutions in MENA countries. The study recommends significant policies that can be implemented to promote public trust and bank stability.

本研究调查了可信度和治理质量在银行风险承担行为中的作用，以及其他普遍研究的特定于银行和特定于国家的变量。通过使用包含 2011 年至 2017 年中东和北非 (MENA) 16 个国家/地区的 202 家银行的数据集和两步广义矩方法，可信赖度直接与风险承担相关，并通过质量间接测试的治理渠道。我们的研究结果表明，可信度会降低风险承担，而治理质量会加剧 MENA 银行的风险承担行为。然而，可信度对风险承担的影响随着善治发生变化，表明由于中东和北非国家正规制度薄弱的存在，信任对风险承担的替代效应。