Investigating the Effectiveness of Banks’ Non-financial Reporting in Portugal

Abstract

AbstractNon-financial reporting legislation was transposed to Portugal from the European Union Directive 2014/95/EU. The non-financial statement should contain enough information for an understanding of the impact of the company's activities, comprising at least the following: environmental, social and worker issues, equality between women and men, non-discrimination, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and fighting against bribery attempts. This study aims to evaluate whether banks have complied with the EU Directive, in the first year of implementation (2017). Results indicate that the mandatory non-financial reporting regulations were mainly fulfilled since the main topics are disclosed. However, there are significant differences among banks in terms of location of information, presentation/communication and details. Therefore, the EU regulations should advance more towards non-financial reporting standardization, improving data comparability among banks.KeywordsBanksDisclosuresDirective 2014/95/EUNon-financial reportingPortugal