Bank disclosure practices: Impact of users’ perspective of financial governance

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of the legal framework, national income and quality of financial governance on bank disclosure practices at a macro level. 104 developed and developing countries were examined in 2004. The findings indicate that in addition to investor protection and national income, quality of financial governance (accounting and audit) is positively associated with bank disclosure practices globally. Furthermore, this paper has explored and extended La Porta et al.’s (1998) findings on the association between national income and the quality of a country’s accounting standards to the banking disclosure model.