Financial instruments disclosure: Do audit committee and audit quality matter?

Abstract

This study was motivated by a dearth of empirical literature on the relationship between audit committee characteristics, audit quality and financial instruments disclosure of a developing country. From the Nigerian Stock Exchange, up to date records over the period of three years (that is, from 2016 to 2018) were sourced from the sample size of all the 20 commercial banks and selected 30 insurance companies. After considering the dual role of audit committee as monitors to shareholders wealth and advisors for transparent managerial action based on quality audit information, the empirical analysis which employs a generalised method of moment estimator (GMM) that account for endogeneity concerns (simultaneity, reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity)indicate that, audit committee meeting frequency (log acm) and audit quality positively and significantly relates to financial instruments disclosure each at 5% level. This result indicates the incentivizing role of audit on the new regulation as it applies to financial institutions in Nigeria. Moreover, firm size (log fsize) is positively related to financial instruments disclosure at 5% level of significance. On the contrary, this study found no significant relationship existing amongst audit committee size and financial instruments disclosure and audit committee meeting frequency and financial instruments disclosure of financial institutions in Nigeria. The study’s implications in the Nigerian context have been discussed.