A Study on the disclosure practices of banks in India with reference to Indian accounting standards

Abstract

Disclosure may be defined as a practice of releasing important information about various activities and affairs of the business through annual reports, press releases, interim reports, quarterly results and various other published results. The present study mainly aims at examining the disclosure practices followed by the public and private sector banks in India and the factors affecting the disclosure practices of banks in India. Banks forming a part of Nifty Bank Index have been considered as the sample for the study for the period 2014-15. There are 12 banks included in this index comprising 7 private sector banks and 5 public sector banks. It is concluded that since all the banks considered in the study are listed banks, disclosure scores among public and private sector banks do not vary to a great extent. Accounting for Fixed Assets and Revenue Recognition are the highly disclosed accounting standards, while Accounting for Amalgamation is the least disclosed accounting standard. Size of the bank, profitability and age are the significant factors affecting the disclosure practices of banks in India. The results also show that disclosure practices vary among banks as well as across the years.