This study aims to measure the level of voluntary information disclosure in 54 annual reports of listed and unlisted Libyan’s commercial banks, over a six-year reporting period (2006-2011). It also examines if there has been any significant improvement in the levels of voluntary information disclosure provided in the annual reports, using a longitudinal analysis approach. To measure the voluntary disclosure level, this study develops a scoring sheet comprised of 63 voluntary information items and a dichotomous scoring method was applied. A longitudinal analysis shows that the extent of all five types of information disclosures is low, with an average of 38%, however there was an improvement in the general level of voluntary disclosure and its categories over a six-year period. In addition, it shows that the level of background information is the highest level of voluntary disclosures over the periods of the study and the level of corporate social information is the lowest level of voluntary disclosure in the annual reports of the study time periods. This research project is to help develop the existing disclosure literature in relation to the banking sector, which is currently sparse due to the limited empirical research studies on the extent of banking disclosure and its developments.
Keywords: Annual Reports, Commercial Bank, Libya., Voluntary Disclosure
