Determinants of Firms Characteristics, Timeliness of Audit Reporting and Earning Performance of Listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria

The determinants of firm characteristics, timely audit reports and earning performance of listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria are examined in this study. The population of samples is made up of the 14 DMBs listed on the Nigerian Exchange Group NGX as at April 31, 2025, following an Ex-post facto research design. Used and selected ten banks annual reports between the years of 2015 to 2024. Descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression statistics were conducted to examine the relationship between audit firm size, audit committee size and timeliness of audit reporting on earnings performance. The results indicate weak negative relationships between timeliness of audit reporting and audit firm size on earnings performance which imply that there is no significant impact of audit firm on the timeliness of audit reports and earnings performance. Audit firm size and earnings performance were moderately negatively correlated, suggesting that clients of larger firms tend to have worse earnings performance. Also, audit committee size has a moderate negative correlation with earnings performance, reinforcing that larger audit committees would slow the audit process due to a difficult and time consumes of review and approval process. The study concluded that having an appropriate organisational structure is not an assurance of the timely presenting of audits. Therefore, DMBs are advised to evaluate the effectiveness and size of their audit committees and to bolster internal controls. Regulators and other stakeholders are urged to think of factors that relate to the concept of audit timeliness not only in terms of structural controls but also with respect to audit complexity and institutional arrangements.