Forward Looking Disclosure and Its Determinants: Empirical Evidence from the Listed Banks of Bangladesh.

Forward looking information is an emerging issue in academic and corporate arena. Today’s dynamic and competitive business world, the disclosure of forward looking information gives competitive advantages. The main objective of the study is to empirically find out the extent of forward looking disclosure and it’s determinants in the banking sector of Bangladesh. To conduct the study total 120 firm years are considered as sample from 30 listed banks from DSE as sample during the period 2017 to 2021. The average mean value of forward looking information is 38% which indicates poor quality of forward looking information in the most regulated sectors of Bangladesh. The results using multivariate regression analysis shows that board independence, audit firm size and firm’s profitability have positive and significant relationship with forward looking disclosure index (FLDI). This study also finds that foreign ownership, board size and audit independence have significant negative relationship with FLDI. But this study didn’t find any significant association of forward looking information with firm size, female board members, sponsor /directors in the banking sector of Bangladesh. To the best of our knowledge, there is scarcity of research that has been examined the disclosure of forward looking information and it’s determinants in banking sector of Bangladesh as well as very limited work is done in other sectors. The study will contribute to the existing scarce literature and may influence the policymakers and regulators to incorporate regulations to increase the quality and extent of forward looking disclosure

Keywords:
Forward looking disclosure (FLD), Annual report, Board Independence, Foreign Ownership, information asymmetry.