A research report submitted by in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Commerce University of the Witwatersrand September 2017 / The World Wide Web has developed rapidly over the past few years. It has provided a user-friendly platform for companies to disclose their financial information. However, as this disclosure is largely voluntary, the question arises as to what drives companies to disclose their information on their websites voluntarily. Prior research in developed countries tests the influence of certain company characteristics on internet financial reporting. This research report tries to shed light on the determinants of internet financial reporting in the South African context. 80 companies which are listed on the JSE were selected, and the characteristics of each company’s website was thoroughly inspected against an internet financial reporting checklist. Based on the results of the checklist, each company`s website was given a score. This internet financial reporting score was considered as the dependent variable. Six company characteristics were used as independent variables to explain the internet financial reporting score. These were: company size, profitability, block ownership, systematic risk, dual-listing and SRI rating. It was found that company size, dual-listing and SRI rating has a correlation with a company’s likelihood of reporting their financial results online. On the other hand, no correlation was found between profitability, block ownership or systematic risk and a company’s internet financial reporting score. This research was limited to 80 companies listed on the JSE, and was based as a point in time study. Future research can be extended to a larger sample over various stock exchanges, and also over a period of time to consider the trends in disclosure. This study contributes to international literature on the topic and also initiates this field of research in South Africa. This research is intended to assist companies in their voluntary disclosure practices and at the same time assists regulators in considering the need for regulating internet reporting practices. / MT 2018

O Acordo de Capital ?Basiléia 2? traz importantes inovações à regulação prudencial do sistema bancário internacional. A principal delas é a possibilidade dos bancos desenvolverem e utilizarem modelos internos de adequação de capital. Contudo, esta possibilidade exige que estes modelos sejam validados, tanto pelas autoridades supervisoras, quanto pelos demais participantes do mercado. Em virtude disto, o referido Acordo está estruturado em três pilares: Pilar 1, dos requisitos mínimos de capital; Pilar 2, do processo de revisão do órgão supervisor; e Pilar 3, da disciplina de mercado. O Pilar 3 estabelece exigências mínimas e recomendações sobre as informações que devem ser divulgadas pelos bancos, a fim de garantir ao mercado as condições para avaliar os riscos incorridos pelo banco e sua adequação da quantidade de capital. Sob a luz das recomendações do Acordo ?Basiléia 2?, foi analisada a transparência das demonstrações contábeis dos principais bancos brasileiros. Concluiu-se que a divulgação dos bancos no Brasil encontra-se num estágio incipiente, uma vez que foram divulgados apenas 26% dos itens pesquisados, próximo ao mínimo exigido pela legislação brasileira em vigor, enquanto que os bancos internacionais, analisados em uma pesquisa conduzida pelo Comitê da Basiléia, divulgaram 63% dos itens. / The ?Basel 2? brings important innovations to prudential regulation of international banking system. The main innovation is the possibility of banks to develop and use internal models to capital adequacy. However, this possibility demands these models to be validated by both the supervisory authorities and the market participants. As a result, the Accord is structured into three pillars: pillar 1 ? minimum capital requirement, pillar 2 ? supervisory review process, and pillar 3 ? market discipline. The pillar 3 establishes minimum requirements and recommendations about the information ought to be disclosed by banks, in order to guarantee the market the conditions to assess the risks incurred by the bank and its capital adequacy. According to the recommendations of ?Basel 2?, the financial statements disclosure of the most important Brazilian banks was analyzed. It was concluded the disclosure of banks in Brazil is in a budding stage, since only 26% of the items surveyed were disclosed, nearly the minimum required by Brazilian legislation in effect, whereas the international banks analyzed in a survey conducted by the Basel Committee disclosed 63% of the items.

O Acordo de Capital ?Basiléia 2? traz importantes inovações à regulação prudencial do sistema bancário internacional. A principal delas é a possibilidade dos bancos desenvolverem e utilizarem modelos internos de adequação de capital. Contudo, esta possibilidade exige que estes modelos sejam validados, tanto pelas autoridades supervisoras, quanto pelos demais participantes do mercado. Em virtude disto, o referido Acordo está estruturado em três pilares: Pilar 1, dos requisitos mínimos de capital; Pilar 2, do processo de revisão do órgão supervisor; e Pilar 3, da disciplina de mercado. O Pilar 3 estabelece exigências mínimas e recomendações sobre as informações que devem ser divulgadas pelos bancos, a fim de garantir ao mercado as condições para avaliar os riscos incorridos pelo banco e sua adequação da quantidade de capital. Sob a luz das recomendações do Acordo ?Basiléia 2?, foi analisada a transparência das demonstrações contábeis dos principais bancos brasileiros. Concluiu-se que a divulgação dos bancos no Brasil encontra-se num estágio incipiente, uma vez que foram divulgados apenas 26% dos itens pesquisados, próximo ao mínimo exigido pela legislação brasileira em vigor, enquanto que os bancos internacionais, analisados em uma pesquisa conduzida pelo Comitê da Basiléia, divulgaram 63% dos itens. / The ?Basel 2? brings important innovations to prudential regulation of international banking system. The main innovation is the possibility of banks to develop and use internal models to capital adequacy. However, this possibility demands these models to be validated by both the supervisory authorities and the market participants. As a result, the Accord is structured into three pillars: pillar 1 ? minimum capital requirement, pillar 2 ? supervisory review process, and pillar 3 ? market discipline. The pillar 3 establishes minimum requirements and recommendations about the information ought to be disclosed by banks, in order to guarantee the market the conditions to assess the risks incurred by the bank and its capital adequacy. According to the recommendations of ?Basel 2?, the financial statements disclosure of the most important Brazilian banks was analyzed. It was concluded the disclosure of banks in Brazil is in a budding stage, since only 26% of the items surveyed were disclosed, nearly the minimum required by Brazilian legislation in effect, whereas the international banks analyzed in a survey conducted by the Basel Committee disclosed 63% of the items.

No description available.

The purpose of financial reporting is to provide information that is useful for decision making. Recently, however, there has been a systematic decline in the usefulness of such information. Indeed, the current reporting model seems to be no longer sufficient mainly due to the fact that it ignores many of the nonfinancial intangible factors which are increasingly becoming important in determining corporate value and performance. That is, there is a need for the traditional reporting model to be modified or at least broadened to reflect Intangible Assets (IA) in order to enhance the usefulness of information being provided to different stakeholders. In the absence of mandatory reporting requirements, one alternative way of disseminating information regarding IA is to engage in voluntary disclosure practices. It has also been suggested that companies which would benefit the most from such practice are those originating from emerging economies looking to expand into international markets. While there exists an array of empirical studies which have examined the voluntary disclosure practices of corporations from developed economies, less considered are the reporting practices of emerging market companies regarding their IA. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the voluntary disclosure practices of the top 200 emerging market companies regarding the variety, nature and extent of IA and to consider some of the factors that may be associated with the level of such disclosure. Using a disclosure index based on the Value Chain Scoreboard??? (Lev, 2001), narrative sections of the 2002 annual reports of the top 200 emerging market companies are analysed. The findings indicate that emerging market companies engage in voluntary disclosure practices in order to disseminate different varieties of mainly quantitative IA information to their global stakeholders. Further, the variety and the extent of IA disclosure are associated with corporate specific factors such as leverage, adoption of IFRS/US GAAP, industry type, and price to book ratio. Contrary to the existing literature on voluntary disclosure, however, firm size and ownership concentration are not found to be associated with the IA disclosure level. Country specific factors such as the level of risks associated with economic policy and legal system are also found to be significantly associated with the IA voluntary disclosure level.

<p>Despite the vital role that statutory auditing plays in enhancing trust or credibility over the financial statements of business entities, most member states in the European Union community have decided to grant a waiver or exempt small companies from the service in order to reduce administrative burden and cost for these companies. In Sweden this is still a proposal that will be in effect by 2010. Since accounting has become the way firms measure their performance, auditing has also become an increasing need for users of accounting information such as stakeholders. This paper presents an investigation on the banks opinion and reactions about the new proposal or legislation concerning small companies in Sweden that will be exempted from statutory auditing. The study is focused on the banks perspective since banks are key players in providing funds to small companies and enabling their survival. In granting loans to companies, banks always require them to provide audited financial statements for assurance and credibility purpose. Thus our empirical findings have been carried out through the inductive research method based on three interviews undertaken with some personnel of the management of three major banking institutions in the city of Umea and Skelleftea. From this study we found that though statutory audit will be removed for small companies by government, banks will still require these companies to provide them with audited financial statements when it comes to granting loans to companies. Unfortunately, this policy may backfire as it opens the floodgates for companies to manipulate by keeping low figures to avoid tax or high to increase credibility.</p>

Despite the vital role that statutory auditing plays in enhancing trust or credibility over the financial statements of business entities, most member states in the European Union community have decided to grant a waiver or exempt small companies from the service in order to reduce administrative burden and cost for these companies. In Sweden this is still a proposal that will be in effect by 2010. Since accounting has become the way firms measure their performance, auditing has also become an increasing need for users of accounting information such as stakeholders. This paper presents an investigation on the banks opinion and reactions about the new proposal or legislation concerning small companies in Sweden that will be exempted from statutory auditing. The study is focused on the banks perspective since banks are key players in providing funds to small companies and enabling their survival. In granting loans to companies, banks always require them to provide audited financial statements for assurance and credibility purpose. Thus our empirical findings have been carried out through the inductive research method based on three interviews undertaken with some personnel of the management of three major banking institutions in the city of Umea and Skelleftea. From this study we found that though statutory audit will be removed for small companies by government, banks will still require these companies to provide them with audited financial statements when it comes to granting loans to companies. Unfortunately, this policy may backfire as it opens the floodgates for companies to manipulate by keeping low figures to avoid tax or high to increase credibility.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1985.

This dissertation investigates whether firms strategically disclose accounting restatements by coordinating restatement announcements with earnings releases, delaying the announcement of income-decreasing restatements, or obscuring restatement announcements by failing to disclose news of a restatement on a Form 8-K filing. I examine restatements announced after a Securities and Exchange Commission rule (effective August 24, 2004) that mandates a unique 8-K filing for restatements. Consistent with an attempt to lessen the negative impact of a restatement announcement, I find that when firms package restatement announcements with earnings releases they most often pair small income-decreasing restatements with positive earnings surprises. I also find that monitoring by the SEC decreases the probability of firms' mixing restatement and earnings news. On average, firms delay announcements of income-decreasing restatements longer than announcements of income-increasing restatements, and institutional ownership is positively associated with more timely disclosures of restatement news. I show that firms with weak corporate governance or less external monitoring are more likely to make news of a restatement difficult to find. Restatements performed without a Form 8-K filing are much less likely to be disclosed in a company-issued press release or to receive attention in the business press, and I find some evidence that the initial market reaction to obscure restatement announcements is less negative than the reaction to restatements disclosed transparently. Collectively, these results suggest that even in the presence of strict disclosure requirements, some firms attempt to strategically manage the timing and transparency of restatement announcements and investors do not appear to undo the effects of firms' strategic behavior. / text

Literature suggests that countries should adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards and the worldwide recommended narrative reporting in annual reports. However, in developing countries, a range of prerequisites have to be put in place to ensure compliance therewith. This study has two main aims: firstly, to identify the way Rwandan companies report and to compare their reporting system with international requirements, and secondly to establish how aware Rwandan companies are of narrative reporting. This study uses a basic research and a mixed methods approach. A mixed method approach is used when the researcher supplements qualitative information with a quantitative approach to provide a more comprehensive analysis of the problem. A sample of 24 companies formed the subject of this study. Data were collected using a questionnaire which was supplemented in some cases with interviews. This study revealed that although Rwandan companies report annually, they do not all comply with International Financial Reporting Standards. While Rwandan companies do not totally ignore narrative reporting and are aware of its importance, some preparers lack some knowledge towards the preparation and presentation of such reports. Some of the reasons for this were the lack of a properly constituted accounting board, the lack of sound regulation in the accounting profession and the absence of enough qualified accountants Based on the current study’s findings, it is recommended that the accounting profession in Rwanda should be strengthened. This can be achieved with the help of the government of Rwanda and the international community. The current study also revealed the necessity for Rwanda to adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards. To achieve this, an incremental adoption approach is recommended which could lead the way to the full adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards. / Thesis (M.Acc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2009.