Edinburgh Napier University

  This study investigates the mandatory disclosure practices evident in the annual reports of Malaysian public listed companies. Our findings show that none of the examined companies fully met the mandatory disclosure requirements even though the companies’ management had declared that the financial statements were prepared in accordance with the approved accounting standards. We also observed an inappropriate usage of ‘boilerplate’ practice in the preparation of financial statements, whereby the companies disclosed certain information that was irrelevant to their circumstances. This study has shown that to assume that companies will fully comply with mandatory disclosure requirements may not be necessarily true and, second, merely adopting International Financial Reporting Standards may not automatically lead to increased transparency.