BOARD CHARACTERISTICS AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT FRAUD IN LISTED DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGERIA

The study examines the e ffect of board characteristics on financial statement fraud of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted using panel data of ten years (2010-2019) to explore the effect of independent variables (board size, board independence, and board gender diversity) on the dependent variable (financial statement fraud). The population of the study is the 14 listed deposit money banks in Nigeria quoted as at 2019. Purposive sampling method was used to select 13 banks. The study made use of secondary data from banks ’ annual reports and accounts of the listed deposit money banks in Nigeria, and the CBN Bulletin. Logistic regression was used and found out that board independence and board gender diversity are significant negatively related to financial statement fraud of quoted DMBs in Nigeria. Conversely, board size indicates insignificant positive relation to financial statement fraud. Thus the study concludes that, board characteristics are negatively related to financial statement fraud of quoted DMBs in Nigeria. It is recommended among others that, quoted DMBs in Nigeria should insist on increasing the number of non-executive directors in the board for more transparency and accountability. Since outside directors are more active and determined to ensuring that transparency and accountability is at work.