An examination of voluntary financial instruments disclosures in excess of mandatory requirements by UK FTSE 100 non-financial firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address “the existing literature gap on the information content of derivatives reporting”. Prior work finds failings in compliance with mandatory reporting requirements in respect of financial instruments and derivative financial instruments. Instead of identifying weaknesses in compliance the paper identifies where firms over-comply or in other words, where firms voluntarily disclose more than they are required and whether this is incremental information or serves another purpose. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the financial instruments disclosures of the FTSE 100 non-financial IFRS 7 compliant firms. Based on these results, on a case-by-case basis the authors address potential causes and rationale for this extra disclosure. Findings – Prior research suggests that it is counter intuitive to argue that firms will provide voluntary disclosure in a mandatory reporting environment because information of this sort tends to be proprietary and competition sensitive, not to mention costly to prepare. However, it is found that firms have voluntarily published information in excess of the requirements and the authors suggest that this extra detail is most commonly associated with a legitimation strategy. Originality/value – In spite of the importance of derivatives usage and management in addition to the increased and often complex reporting requirements, the authors are not aware of any previous study of this type.