Designing a management control system for a newly established bank: case Study of the National Housing Bank (NHB

Abstract

Management control systems (MCSs) play a central role in monitoring financial performance, supporting governance, risk management, and decision-making in banking institutions. Yet, newly established banks face specific challenges in designing control systems adapted to their early-stage organizational context, a situation that remains underexplored in the existing literature. This dissertation examines how the National Housing Bank (NHB), an Algerian public bank established in 2022 through the institutional transformation of the National Housing Fund, can design and implement an effective MCS to ensure financial performance monitoring, risk control, and governance.

The study adopts a constructivist epistemological stance and an abductive qualitative case study design. Data were collected through direct observation, document analysis, and nine semi-structured interviews with senior managers, and subsequently analyzed using the Gioia methodology.

The findings reveal that NHB's MCS remains at an emerging stage, characterized by fragmented control practices, deficiencies in information systems, human capital challenges, and strong regulatory influence. Based on these findings, the study proposes a context-specific, phased MCS architecture supported by a financial performance dashboard, integrating nineteen key performance indicators across profitability, risk management, activity, efficiency, and compliance.

The study contributes to the management control literature by demonstrating the necessity of contextually sensitive and phased MCS design in newly established banking institutions operating in emerging economy contexts.