Audit Reporting Lag and Regulatory Compliance in Listed Financial Services Firms in Nigeria: A Cross-Sectoral Evaluation
Audit Reporting Lag and Regulatory Compliance in Listed Financial Services Firms in Nigeria: A Cross-Sectoral Evaluation

Summary/Abstract: Motivated by existing scanty literature, this study comparatively evaluated ARL across four sub-sectors of the financial services sector in Nigeria. Using ex-post facto research design, it collected secondary data which spanned 2012 to 2018 from the annual reports of an adjusted population of forty-two (42) firms, spread across four sub-sectors, after applying filter on a population of fifty-three (53) firms. A single objective and hypothesis were specified. Statistical tools such mean, pie and line charts, Shapiro-Wilk (SW), Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS), Brown-Forsythe (BF) and Analysis of Variance tests were employed to descriptively and inferentially analyse the data collected. Findings showed that average ARL differed significantly among the Banking, Other Financial Institutions, Insurance and Mortgage sub-sectors of the financial services industry in Nigeria (F (3,38) =4.990, p < 0.05), on which basis the study concluded that ARL in the four sub-sectors are significantly different, with strong implications for sub-sectoral stock performance. It was recommended that regulatory authorities of insurance firms (National Insurance Commission) and mortgage carriers, brokers and services (Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria) should step up their oversight functions, especially in the area of making the firms over which they superintend to report their financial results earlier.

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