Association between firm-specific characteristics and levels of disclosure of financial information of rural banks in the Ashanti region of Ghana

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of firm-specific characteristics which include firm size, profitability, debt equity ratio, liquidity and audit firm size on voluntary disclosure level of rural banks in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The research was conducted through detailed analysis of the disclosures of the financial statements of the rural banks for the year 2009. Descriptive analysis was performed to provide the background statistics of the variables examined. This was followed by regression analysis which forms the main data analysis. The results indicate that profitability represented by Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) is positively related to the disclosure level, whilst debt equity ratio, liquidity, firm size and audit firm size were insignificantly related to the disclosure level. -- financial accounting ; voluntary disclosure ; IFRS ; rural banks ; Ghana