Audit Committee Attributes and Whistle-Blowing Policy

Abstract

There is limited evidence about the association between audit committee (AC) characteristics and effective whistleblowing policy. In light of the above, this study explores the relationship between AC and the effective whistle-blowing policy in Nigerian Banks. The study uses a period of ten years (2009 to 2019). It employs a logistic regression technique in the analysis. Data for the study were found from the listed banks’ yearly reports. The results revealed that firms that have AC composed of independent directors, have more financial experts, and meet regularly are more likely to have an effective whistleblowing policy. Moreover, a larger AC is associated with a weak whistleblowing policy. Therefore, it is recommended that regulators such as the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Nigerian Central Bank (CBN) should ensure stringent compliance of their codes of corporate governance on AC composition as both of them recommend the existence of autonomous directors and financial experts in the AC. However, the findings and recommendations are only applicable to listed banks in Nigeria. For this reason, further research may be needed to be conducted on the AC attributes in other sectors like manufacturing firms.