Yes / We examine the relationships among religious governance, especially Islamic governance quality (IGQ), national governance quality (NGQ), and risk management and disclosure practices (RDPs), and consequently ascertain whether NGQ has a moderating influence on the IGQ–RDPs nexus. Using one of the largest data sets relating to Islamic banks from 10 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries from 2006 to 2013, our findings are threefold. First, we find that RDPs are higher in banks with higher IGQ. Second, we find that RDPs are higher in banks from countries with higher NGQ. Finally, we find that NGQ has a moderating effect on the IGQ–RDPs nexus. Our findings are robust to alternative RDP measures and estimation techniques. These results imply that the quality of disclosure depends on the nature of the macro-social-level factors, such as religion that have remained largely unexplored in business and society research, and, therefore, have important implications for policy makers.

Yes / This study examines the impact of multi-layer governance mechanisms on the level of bank risk disclosure. Using a large dataset from 14 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over a period of 8 years, our findings are three-fold. First, our results suggest that the presence of a Sharia supervisory board is positively associated with the level of risk disclosure. Second and at the bank-level, we find that ownership structures have a positive effect on the level of risk disclosure. At the country-level, our evidence suggests that control of corruption has a positive effect on the level of bank risk disclosure. Our study is, therefore, a major departure from much of the existing accounting literature that offers new crucial insights that show that firms’ disclosure choices are not mainly shaped by firm-level (internal) governance arrangements, but also country-level (external) governance and religious factors. Our findings have important implications for corporate boards, investors, regulatory authorities, standards-setters and governments relating to the development, implementation and enforcement of corporate and national governance standards.