Determinants of Basel III Risk Disclosures: The Case of Gulf Cooperation Council Public Banks

Manuscript Type Research paper Research aims: The purpose of this paper is to investigate and examine the determinants of risk disclosure practices under Basel 3, Pillar 3 (revised 2016 version) requirements of the top 50 listed banks in the Gulf Countries region (GCC). The study covers the period 2016-2019. Design/Methodology/Approach: The present study is based on a content analysis approach to allow the measurement of risk disclosures. Six risk disclosure categories were identified as the major sections regarding this particular type of reporting. The analysis covers both quantitative and qualitative data that had been hand collected from the annuals reports and Pillar 3 risk disclosures reports. From a regulatory perspective, the study refers to the most relevant international accounting standards, namely, Basel III Agreement Pillar 3 (2016 revised version), and IFRS 7. Research findings: It is expected that the GCC major banks, even though they must comply with the same risk disclosure regulation, will demonstrate specific disparities in their risk reporting. The results of the study suggest that Basel III risk reporting is significantly determined by size, leverage, cross listing, and government ownership. Theoretical contributions/Originality: The present study contributes to the literature by documenting the level of compliance of the top GCC banks with the recent BCBS risk disclosure requirements, and by providing empirical evidence regarding the quality of the released risk disclosures and its potential determinants. Another major contribution of the paper is the development of a self-constructed disclosure index that reflects the most recent Basel III disclosure regulations (Pillar 3, 2016 version). Practical implications: The findings of this study could be appreciated from different angles. From a regulatory perspective, this study might be insightful to GCC baking regulators in term of developing appropriate policies that will bring the banks to responsibly and professionally adopt an acceptable level of risk disclosure. At the global level, the findings could be insightful to the IASB concerning the degree of compliance of the banks in the region with IFRSs related to risk reporting. Thus, it can help the IASB consider institutional differences among countries when revising its pronouncements. Research limitations/Implications: The findings of the present study would be understood in light of some limitations. First, in the present study, we considered only the top 50 GCC listed banks, which could impede the generalisation of the results from the content analysis and the regression on the rest of the banks in the region. Second, we were interested in this research about the implementation of the new 2016 market discipline Pillar 3 disclosures requirement. Expanding the time frame of the study could reveal additional insights into risk disclosure practices.