Empirical research on banks' risk disclosure: Systematic literature review, bibliometric analysis and future research agenda

The purpose of this paper is to outline the current state of empirical research on banks' risk reporting. In addition to the development of the research field over time, regulatory trends and drivers for academic research on risk reporting will be derived. The review follows a triangulated approach: In addition to a qualitative content analysis based on the SLR, a quantitative bibliometric analysis using the scientific visualization techniques bibliometrix and VOSviewer will serve as a robustness check. The sole focus of this SLR on banks reflects the regulatory specificity of the financial services industry and serves to derive recommendations for action for regulators, supervisors, and auditors. The article follows the tenor of macro- and micro-prudential banking regulation, which has raised market discipline to a new level through the implementation of regulatory disclosure standards in the context of the Basel III amendment, with a deliberate clustering of the research area according to risk types. By identifying research gaps and conceptualizing a research agenda, this paper continues to serve the academia to broaden the research field of risk disclosure, especially for banks. •This paper outlines the current state of empirical research on banks' risk reporting covering 69 empirical articles over the period from 2002 to the beginning of 2022.•The review follows a triangulated approach, including a qualitative content analysis and a quantitative bibliometric analysis for a robustness check.•The study focuses on banks due to the regulatory specificity of the financial services industry.•The paper aims to identify research gaps and provide recommendations for action for regulators, supervisors, and external auditors.