The Management Report Usefulness in Lending Decision: Investigating Egyptian Credit Managers Perceptions

Abstract

This study investigates Egyptian credit managers perceptions regarding the management report disclosures provided by firms to banks and how this represent a useful source of information for credit managers in rationalizing the lending decision. We surveyed credit managers in all banks listed by the Central bank of Egypt to determine whether disclosures are meeting the needs of this group of financial reports’ users. The final sample consists of 160 credit managers and their credit officers who work in Egyptian private and governmental banks as well as foreign banks operating in Egypt. Through hypotheses testing the main findings reveal that credit managers perceive both mandatory and voluntary disclosures as useful. Moreover, there was significant difference in some of their perceptions, these differences were explained through psychological engagement (i.e. gender, experience, educational level, and background) throughout the analysis. Some voluntary disclosures are more useful than mandatory disclosures, which clarify the existence of a gap between regulators and users’ perceptions. Moreover, the findings show that respondents consider information related to risk management, key performance indicators, and forward-looking more important than information on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility (CSR). The current study extends and enriches the ongoing academic and practical debate on the usefulness of narrative disclosures. Our findings suggest that regulators should seek more improvement to the current requirements as voluntary disclosures which were found to be more important. Our investigation touched a blind spot in the literature and provided evidence for the usefulness of MR disclosure in lending decision, as previous studies investigated the usefulness of management reports in investment decision.