Abstract:
Risk disclosure practices have received increasing attention in the wake
of the 2008 global financial crisis. This study investigated possible
determinants relating to the composition of the board committee
responsible for risk management, the frequency of board risk committee
meetings and whether the company employs a chief risk officer, which
could manifest in an enhanced level of risk-related disclosure. Based on
the possible determinants identified in the literature, nine hypotheses
were developed in order to investigate which of these determinants
relate to an enhanced level of risk disclosure by the selected companies.
The first required integrated reports of non-financial companies in the
Top 40 index of the JSE Securities Exchange were investigated in this
study. Regarding one area of investigation, namely the level of risk
management disclosure, it was found that the disclosure of companies
whose risk committee met more frequently and the disclosure of
companies that employed a chief risk officer, were of a relatively higher
standard. With regard to the other area of investigation, namely the
level of risk identification and mitigation disclosure, no clearly significant
determinant of enhanced disclosure was identified.
