Evaluation of Integrated Reporting Adoption in the Financial Sector of Kenya

The Central Bank of Kenya has resolved to increase public confidence in Kenyan banks through increased transparency. In the estimation of the Central Bank of Kenya, sufficient qualitative and quantitative disclosures will help instill public confidence in the financial sector in Kenya. However, the extent to which the Kenyan financial institutions have adopted integrated reporting is not known. The study thus examined the adoption of integrated reporting by the financial institutions listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). The study's population was all 22 financial firms/institutions listed on the NSE. A six-year review was conducted on the audited annual reports of the firms from 2012 to 2017 and a rating scale was used to analyse the level and trend of integrated reporting adoption by the firms. In addition, a Wilcoxon's signed-rank test was used to test whether there was any significant difference in the level of integrated reporting across years. It was found that the majority of the financial institutions in Kenya have not fully adopted integrated reporting. However, the extent of integrated reporting had significantly increased over the years among the few firms that had adopted integrated reporting.