The impact of multi-layer governance on bank risk disclosure in emerging markets: the case of Middle East and North Africa

Value Relevance of Voluntary Risk Disclosure Levels: Evidence from Saudi Banks

This study aims to measure the risk disclosure level in Egyptian banks and to investigate its determinants. The sample consisted of 28 banks during the period from 2010 to 2017. An unweighted risk disclosure index including six categories was used: credit risk, market risk, liquidity risk, capital structure and adequacy risk, operational risk, and other non-financial risks. Also, a content analysis approach was used to measure the actual level of risk disclosure. The findings demonstrated that there was an average level of total risk disclosure of all sample banks. The results showed that banks with a higher percentage of independent board membership, large board size, large audit committee size, duality, higher institutional ownership, and banks audited by one of big four audit firms were more motivated to increase risk disclosure. Also, the results showed that leverage, bad news, and bank social responsibility have a negative relationship with the level of risk disclosure. Overall, the results indicated that leverage, board size, audit committee size, auditor types, independence, duality, institutional ownership, bank social responsibility, and bad news are the main factors affecting the level of risk disclosure in Egyptian banks. The findings of this paper have a number of important implications. The risk disclosure in the banking sector is important for stakeholders such as investors and depositors. Also, risk disclosure index helps the regulatory bodies to evaluate the risk disclosure practice in Egyptian banks. This paper contributes to analyzing factors affecting banks managers’ decision to disclose risk information in emerging countries such as Egypt.

This study contributes to the existing risk disclosure literature in emerging economies, in particular Saudi Arabia (SA), by examining the levels of risk disclosure in the annual reports of both Islamic and non-Islamic listed banks. This investigation uses a manual content analysis method to examine all Saudi listed banks from 2009 to 2013. This study also develops two holistic risk disclosure indices to measure the levels of risk disclosure in both Islamic and non-Islamic banks. The empirical analysis shows that Islamic banks report less risk information than non-Islamic banks. However, the analysis also reveals that both Islamic and non-Islamic banks report relatively the same amount of risk information regarding the banks’ universal items. Furthermore, the empirical analysis shows that Islamic banks report very low risk disclosure items. The study’s findings have practical implications. They inform the regulators about the current level of risk disclosure in all Saudi listed banks (Islamic and non-Islamic). For example, the findings show that Islamic banks report less risk information than their non-Islamic counterparts. The practical implications for managers from these findings are that in order to keep investors satisfied, banks with low levels of risk disclosure should enhance their reporting practices. This will help investors when making investment decisions. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, no prior research has previously been conducted on the levels of risk disclosure in Saudi Arabian listed banks. Therefore, this is the first study to examine the levels of risk disclosure in the context of Saudi Arabia.

Abstract: This research aims to examine the determinants of risk disclosure level of public listed firms in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Risk disclosure level is divided into three types, i.e., mandatory, voluntary, and total risk disclosure. The results show that generally firm size and product or service diversification has a positive effect on risk disclosure level, whereas geographic diversification positively affects only voluntary risk disclosure. Based on industry type, firms in certain sectors such as infrastructure, mining, agriculture, and property, have a higher level of risk disclosure than miscellaneous industries. Abstrak: This research aims to examine the determinants of risk disclosure level of public listed firms in Indonesia Stock Exchange. Risk disclosure level is divided into three types, i.e., mandatory, voluntary, and total risk disclosure. The results show that generally firm size and product or service diversification has a positive effect on risk disclosure level, whereas geographic diversification positively affects only voluntary risk disclosure. Based on industry type, firms in certain sectors such as infrastructure, mining, agriculture, and property, have a higher level of risk disclosure than miscellaneous industries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate governance to risk disclosure ofIndonesian banks. Corporate governance are identified as the board size, the proportion ofindependent director, the proportion of woman director, the educational background of presidentdirector, the culture background of president director, the number of board meetings, the number ofaudit committee meetings and the proportion of independen audit committee members. This studyalso uses leverage and profitability as control variable. The level of risk disclosure is measuredbased on identified items of Lampiran Surat Edaran Bank Indonesia No.5/21/DPNP/2003. Underpurposive sampling, secondary data of 60 annual reports year 2007-2009 of banks in IndonesianStock Exchange are selected.The average level of risk disclosure is 51.42%. The result indicatesthat the level of risk disclosure of banking is at low since risk disclosure is mandatory disclosureaccording PSAK No. 31 (revised 2000), PBI Nomor: 5/8/PBI/2003, PSAK 50 (2006) andP3LKEPPBANK (2008). The result of multiple regression shows that corporate governance affectsthe level of risk disclosure through the variable board size and the number of board meetings. Othervariable, the proportion of independent director, proportion of woman director, educationalbackground of president director, culture background of president director, the number of auditcommittee meeting, and proportion of independen audit committee members are not goodpredictors for level of risk disclosure. Keywords:risk disclosure, corporate governance, Indonesian banks

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the UAE corporations‐specific characteristics, mainly – size, level of risk, industry type and reserves – and level of corporate risk disclosure (CRD). Design/methodology/approach – Since the UAE is an emerging capital market, the paper relies on the positive accounting and the institutional theories to generate testable hypotheses and explain the empirical findings. The paper draws results depending on a sample of 41 corporations. A risk disclosure index – based on accounting standards, prior literature, and the UAE regulatory framework – has been crafted and calculated for each corporation in the sample. The relationship between the level of CRD and corporations' characteristics is examined using multiple regression analysis. Findings – The results show that corporate size is not significantly associated with the level of CRD. However, the corporate level of risk and corporate industry type are significant in explaining the variation of CRD. Finally, in contrast with reserves‐CRD hypothesized relationship, corporate reserve is insignificant and negatively associated with level of CRD. Research limitations/implications – The risk disclosure index items reflect their existence in annual reports rather than their level of importance. Practical implications – The empirical findings suggest that corporate reserve, as an explanatory variable, needs further investigation as explained in the paper. Originality/value – The crafting process of the CRD index depends on the UAE regulatory framework. The paper seems to add to the extremely limited literature relating to CRD in Arab countries in general and the UAE in particular.

The current study evaluated the influence of corporate governance mechanisms (CGM) from 130 banks from 13 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. The goal was to analyze their risk disclosure practices from 2012-2019 and understand the impact of corporate governance (CG) on the level of bank risk disclosure. The current findings reveal a positive association between the level of bank-risk disclosure and 1) the presence of Sharia supervisory board; 2) the ownership of structure at the bank level; and 3) control of corruption at the country-level. The study has implications for developing, implementing, and enforcing governance standards at the corporate and national levels that are relevant to corporate boards, investors, governments, and regulatory authorities.

This paper investigates non-financial reporting in non-profit organisations. Specifically, it examines the extent to which UK higher education institutions (HEIs) make voluntary disclosures relating to risk management practices, and investigates whether composite governance quality index and senior management team characteristics can influence such risk disclosures. Using a sample of UK HEIs over a number of years and drawing insights from neo-institutional theory, our findings are three-fold. First, our baseline findings contribute to the literature by showing that the level of risk disclosure among HEIs in the UK is relatively low, especially when compared to the findings of prior studies that have been conducted on similar-sized publicly traded corporations. Second, we contribute to the literature by providing timely evidence on the impact of governance quality on risk disclosure. In particular, our evidence contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating that better-governed HEIs tend to engage in higher risk disclosures than their poorly-governed counterparts. Finally, our study contributes to the extant literature by providing new evidence that offers support for the “shared” governance model among UK HEIs. Specifically, our findings show that the positive governance quality–risk disclosure relationship is moderated/explained largely by the characteristics of the senior management team. Our findings are robust to controlling for endogeneities and alternative estimation techniques, with major implications for non-financial reporting. HIGHLIGHTS This paper examines non-financial reporting (NFR) in non-profit organisations, with specific focus on risk disclosures by UK higher education institutions (HEIs) We examine the effect of UK HEIs' governance quality on the level of risk disclosures; We investigate whether management team characteristics moderate the governance quality-risk disclosures nexus in UK HEIs We find that better-governed UK HEIs tend to engage in higher levels of risk disclosures We show further that the positive governance quality-risk disclosure relationship is moderated/explained largely by the characteristics of the senior management team

The main objective of this study is to test and examine the relationship between specific firm characteristics in Egypt and the level of risk disclosure in the annual reports of Egyptian firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. This study uses a list of risk keywords to determine the differences in the level of risk disclosure between firms in different sectors. The sample includes 49 non-financial firms listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Statistical analysis is implemented using a multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that firm size is significantly positive (in all the three years) with the level of risk disclosure. Industry type variable (which divided to: industries, cement, construction, petrochemicals and services), is found being insignificantly associated with the level of risk information disclosed in the annual reports for all the three years. However, leverage is found being insignificantly associated with the level of risk information disclosed in the annual reports for all the three years.

PurposeThis study aims at examining the level of risk of disclosure practices and the effect of four board of directors' characteristics (board size, board meetings, CEO duality and board expertise) on these practices in the Jordanian context. This study also adds to the body of literature by examining the moderating effect of family ownership on the relationship between the board of directors' characteristics and the corporate risk disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe sample of this study contains the non-financial Jordanian firms listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE). 376 annual reports of the sampled firms over four years from 2014 to 2017 were used. The content analysis approach was used to collect data and to determine the level of risk disclosure by computing the number of risk-related sentences in the annual reporting. To test the study's hypothesis, the random effect model was employed.FindingsThe empirical results show that the total of the risk disclosure sentences for each firm ranges from a minimum value of 2 sentences to a maximum value of 61 sentences, and the mean of CRD is 28 sentences. The results also indicate that the board expertise is positively related with the level of risk disclosure. Conversely, CEO duality has a negative impact on the risk disclosure practices. However, the results failed to support that the board size and the board meetings have a significant effect on the level of risk disclosure. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that the family ownership moderates the relationship between the board of directors and the corporate risk disclosure.Practical implicationsThe finding of this study is more likely be useful for many concerned parties, researchers, authorities, investors and financial analysts alike in understanding the current practices of the risk disclosure in Jordan, thus helping them in reconsidering and reviewing the accounting standards and improving the credibility and transparency of the financial reports in the Jordanian capital market.Originality/valueThe current study contributes to the literature of risk disclosure because the previous research has paid little attention to this topic in Jordan. To the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is the first Jordanian study that focuses on examining the relationship between the board of directors' characteristics and the corporate risk disclosure in the non-financial sector. Furthermore, it is the first study that examines the moderating role of family ownership on such relationships. Consequently, the results of the current study draw attention to the CRD practices and the monitoring role of board of directors in Jordan.

The study examines the relevance of risk reporting in the field of firm voluntary disclosure with an empirical work on Italian listed firms. The motivation of this study is the implementation of the Directive 51/2003/CE in Italy (D.Lgs. 32/2007), a sample of companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange is selected to investigate the relationship between risk disclosure and company characteristics. This paper explores whether there are significant increases in risk reporting over a period of five years and investigates if risk disclosure is influenced only by new law requirement or also by other possible drivers. A content analysis is performed to obtain a measure of risk narrative disclosure. Then several hypothesis tests are carried out to verify whether there are any corporate differences between companies with different levels of risk disclosure, using univariate and multivariate analysis. Our results on the first question document significant increases in Italian companies' levels of risk disclosures. We find also that the disclosure is not only determined by the new law requirements but also by other drivers such as company size.

This research was conducted with the aim of obtaining empirical evidence regarding the effect of profitability, leverage, and company size on the level of risk disclosure in banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (BEI) for the period of 2016-2018. This research was conducted using panel data and the method used in testing the hypothesis was the multiple linear regression method. The sample selection technique used was purposive sampling technique using 27 banking companies as research samples. The data used in this study are secondary data in the form of financial statements. The results of this study indicate that only firm size has a positive effect on the level of risk disclosure, while profitability and leverage have no effect on the level of risk disclosure.

PurposePrevious works assessing the determinants of banks’ risk disclosure in emerging economies focused on one aspect of risk reporting such as market risk disclosure or operational risk disclosure. While banks’ transparency about other major risk types (e.g. capital adequacy, liquidity risk…) is important for both market discipline and for their financial stability, no previous research has tried to discuss their determinants for Islamic banks. This paper aims to fill the gap by assessing the effects of deposits structure and ownership concentration on risk disclosure for Islamic banks.Design/methodology/approachThe authors based on a sample of 71 Islamic banks operating in 12 emerging economies and observed over the period 2009–2014. The authors used a risk disclosure index covering nine dimensions, and the authors used both generalized least squares (GLS) regression and generalized method of moments (GMMs) as econometric tools.FindingsThe findings suggests that the level of risk disclosure is lower for Islamic banks with higher ownership concentration, leveraged bank, listed banks and Islamic banks. However, risk disclosure is higher for Islamic banks with higher concentration of profit sharing investment account (PSIA) and higher foreign ownership, large Islamic banks, aged banks, Islamic banks operating in country with higher country transparency index, positively correlated to gross domestic products and Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) adoption. By disaggregating total risk disclosure into the nine sub-categories, the authors are able to specify, also, the components of risk disclosure impacted by various determinants.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper’s findings are subject, also, to a number of limitations. First, there was manual scoring of annual reports (subjectivity). Second, while some items might have higher information content or be more useful than others for users of Islamic banks’ annual reports, no weighting is assigned to items. Third, the research focuses exclusively on the 12 countries and excludes the other Middle East, Southeast Asia and Far East countries where ownership structure and deposits structure might affect risk disclosure differently.Originality/valueThe findings suggest many policy implications. First, regulators have to improve corporate governance mechanisms in Islamic banking system through the optimization of ownership structure (dispersed ownership) to promote transparency and disclosure. Second, regulators and policymakers should revise guidelines in the main purpose to protect PSIAs holders (considered as minor shareholders without voting power) through promoting disclosure and transparency. Third, the findings can be useful for many international supervisory bodies such as the IFSB and AAOIFI to evaluate transparency and disclosure standards.

The current study examined the role of foreign directors in enhancing the level of risk disclosure in the annual reports of Jordanian listed companies. The content analysis method was used to measure the level of risk disclosure by computing the number of risk-related sentences in annual reports. To achieve the study’s objective, random effect model have been applied on a sample of 376 firm-year observations of Jordanian non-financial companies for the period of 2014-2017. The findings are in line with the argument of agency theory and resource dependence theory, which posits that existence of foreign members on the board contributes in increasing the level of risk disclosure. The study aimed to fill the gap in the literature of risk disclosure regarding the relationship between foreign directors and risk disclosure. It is expected that the findings will be useful to researchers, authorities and investors alike in understanding the important role of foreign directors in improving practices of risk disclosure in Jordan.

PurposeThis paper examines risk information disclosed by UK public companies within their annual reports. The types of risk information disclosed are analyzed and the authors examine whether a relationship exists between company size or level of risk and risk disclosure totals.Design/methodology/approachNo prior empirical studies of the risk information content of annual reports have been undertaken. To analyze the risk disclosures, a sentence‐based approach was used.FindingsOverall the results indicate that the companies sampled are not providing a complete picture of the risks they face. There is minimal disclosure of quantified risk information and a significant proportion of risk disclosures consist of generalized statements of risk policy. More usefully directors are releasing forward‐looking risk information. The principal driver affecting levels of risk disclosure is company size and not company risk level.Research limitations/implicationsFurther risk disclosure research is possible in many different areas. Cross‐country studies could be undertaken as could risk disclosure studies within specific industry sectors. A limitation of the sentence‐based methodology is that it does not measure the quality of the risk disclosures and therefore different methods may be adopted in future studies.Practical implicationsProfessional bodies attempting to improve risk reporting have not convinced directors of the benefits associated with greater voluntary risk disclosure. In the UK this has led to a mandatory requirement to provide better risk information being forced upon companies through legislation enacted by the UK government.Originality/valueThe area this paper researches is of particular importance given recent accounting scandals that have occurred. No previous risk disclosure studies have been published, therefore this exploration is also valuable in linking risk management and transparency.