Determinants of Reporting Delay-Its Analysis and Impact on Efficiency in Financial Reporting: Evidences from Bangladesh

Abstract

In recent years, the issue of timeliness of corporate financial reporting, an
important qualitative characteristic of accounting information, has received much
attention from regulatory and professional bodies of Bangladesh. This paper
specially focuses on the determinants of reporting delay and on relative efficiency of
companies under different industries in financial reporting .To identify the
determinants of reporting delay, variables like type of audit opinion, financial
performance, the status of the audit firm and book closure date are used. Using
about 401 firm-year observations over a period of 7 years from 2004-2010, no
relationship has been found between type of audit opinion and reporting delay. We
also found that reporting delay is positively related to book closure date as at 31st
December and negatively related to financial performance as well as to the status of
audit firm and. Finally this paper reveals that in Bangladesh companies under
Banking Industry are relatively efficient in financial reporting whereas Companies
under Insurance Industry are taking more time in this ground.