Effectiveness of information disclosure of banks operating in India on their web sites — An empirical study

In recent time, the Internet has become as a efficient and effective platform of disclosure of banks´ information. This study is an attempt to analyse the level and intensity of effectiveness of information disclosure of banks operating in India on their websites. For the purpose of this study, a Bank Disclosure Attribute Index (with four attributes such as general attribute, financial attribute, investor attribute, and corporate governance attribute) developed by Charumathi et al (2009) was identified and used. Each bank´s website was explored to identify the availability of the above attributes. The sample for this study includes all the 80 (Nationalized bank(19), SBI associate bank(8), Private banks(22) and Foreign banks(31). This study used statistical tools such as Chi Square Test, bi-vitiate correlation and ANOVA. This study threw light on the adequacy of information disclosure by banks operating in India besides studying the uniformity among the banks in each of the attributes. It also found the correlation between the overall disclosure and four categories of attributes such as general attribute, financial attribute, investor attribute, and corporate governance attribute. This study is more significant according to the International Accounting Standards Board framework. Due to inadequacy and non-uniform in the disclosure of information, the disclosure characteristics would compromise in internet. The quality of information, relevance of data in the present context, usefulness and timeliness of Information are some of compromised characteristics of reporting information on the internet.