Audit Committee Attributes and Financial Reporting Timeliness: Evidence from Internationally Licensed Banks in Nigeria

Abstract This study examined how audit committee attributes influenced financial reporting timeliness among Nigerian banks holding international authorization licenses. Using panel data from eight banks over an eleven-year period (2012–2022), the study applied Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) regression to test the study’s hypothesis while simultaneously addressing non-normality concerns. Audit committee size, diligence (meeting frequency), and financial expertise were examined alongside Big4 auditors’ presence as a control. Findings reveal that audit committee size exhibited a statistically significant negative association with reporting timeliness, suggesting coordination inefficiencies in larger committees. Conversely, audit committee diligence and financial expertise do not significantly influence reporting timeliness. The results extends governance literature within highly regulated banking environments in emerging economies by reinforcing the agency theory predictions regarding monitoring efficiency. The study provides evidence that optimizing audit committee size, rather than merely increasing expertise or meetings, is critical to improving reporting timeliness in banks that are subject to multiple regulatory jurisdictions.