FIRM ATTRIBUTES AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION QUALITY OF LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Firm Attributes on Financial Information Quality of listed Deposit Money Bank in Nigeria. Firm Attributes were proxied with Economic Profit, Firm Size, Dividend, Leverage and Firm Growth, while Financial Information Quality was proxied with Discretionary Loan Loss Provision Model (Chang et al. 2008). The study employed the use of criteria to arrive at the sample size consisting of thirteen (13) listed Deposit Money Banks (DMB’s) in Nigeria out of twenty (20) listed DMB’s as contained in Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Annual Report at 31stDecember 2012. Secondary data was extracted from the Audited annual reports of the sampled firms from 2006–2012. Both normality test and multicolinearity test were conducted to diagnose the result. The findings revealed that, all the firm attributes used in the study has positive and significant influence on the Financial Information Quality of listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria. Therefore it is recommended that the Listed Deposit Money Banks should strive to increase their Economic Profit, Total Asset, and have a consistent increase in dividend payment, while using considerable level of debt to finance the firm activities.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background to the Study

Financial information quality is a key concern for all investors and potential investors

in any organization. As posited by Biddle et al. (2009), financial information quality is termed as the precision with which financial reporting conveys information about the firm‟s operations, in particular its expected cash flows that inform equity investors. Their definition is consistent with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) Statement of Financial Accounting Concepts No. 1 (1978), which states that one objective of financial reporting is to inform present and potential investors in making rational investment decisions and in assessing the expected firm cash flows. Literature on stewardship accounting posits that an accounting number is deemed value relevant if it has a significant association with equity market value (Barth, Beaver, & Landsman, 2001), and could be used to estimate future returns (Beaver, 1968). Thus, if reported earnings are considered by investors to be value relevant and useful in estimating future returns, market value of shares and earnings should normally be related.

Corporate scandals in organization in the last decade and the collapse of big firms in recent years most especially Enron, Tyco, HealthSouth, Parmalat, WorldCom and Xerox around the world have raised concerns about financial information quality which led to the passage of Sarbanes–Oxley Act which had a focus on the financial aspects of corporate governance. The Nigeria Banking Sector was not also free of these said corporate scandals which led to the various reforms by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that forced some of those affected banks out of Business.