Firms' Attributes and Auditors' Reporting Lag In Nigeria Deposit Money Banks

Trimisiu Tunji Siyanbola, Wasi

Abstract

Timeliness is one of the qualities of financial report without which relevance cannot be attained. A relevant but untimely financial reporting has no use and it is capable of causing market imperfection. Thus, the study analyzed the effect of firms’ attributes on auditors’ reporting lag in Nigeria deposit money banks. Ten listed banks were selected purposively based on size and relevant data were obtained from the financial reports of the sampled banks from 2008 to 2017. The study used dynamic generalized method of moment involving fixed effect to test the effect of firms’ attributes on audited reporting lag. Findings showed that age has significant positive effect on auditors’ reporting lag of the sampled banks while size has no significant positive effect. However, profitability was found to exert negative but no significant effect on auditors’ reporting lag. The study concluded that age is the contributing factor for the delay in audited report implying that the older a company is, the more the delay in its audited report. Arising from this, the study recommended that banks should have robust internal control system and accounting system and also comply with all regulations including accounting standards, so as to reduce auditors’ reporting lag in Nigeria. This study is limited to banking sector; future studies can address this limitation by focusing non-financial sector.