Disclosure of Non-Financial Information Voluntarily in the Annual Report of Financial Institutions: A Study on Listed Banks of Bangladesh

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to measure the extent of disclosure of voluntary non-financial information in the annual reports of listed banks in Bangladesh. An effort has also been made to identify the company specific factors responsible for disclosing voluntary non-financial information in addition to mandatory information. An unweighted disclosure index with 48 items has been used to measure the extent of disclosure. The study reveals that most of the listed banks of Bangladesh are making satisfactory level of voluntary disclosure with average score of about 62%. The findings also show that out of three company specific attributes, age and size are significant in explaining the level of voluntary disclosure.