How Business Reporting Changed During the Financial Crisis: A Comparative Case Study of Two Large U.S. Banks

Challenging times, such as the recent financial crisis, appear to cause organizations to change their business reporting. Yet, there is not much evidence of how changes in business reporting were enacted by banks, and there is only little discussion about the extent to which this can be seen and assessed as crisis communication. Using a comparative case study of two U.S. banks, we investigate how their way to report financial performance changed during the ‘troubled times.’ The investigation uses annual reports that cover years before and during the financial crisis.The findings suggest that the two banks have substantially changed their business reporting due to new regulations, the unfavorable economic situation, as well as strategic challenges such as loss in customer satisfaction. We thus conclude that business reporting can be seen – at least temporarily – as a tool for crisis communication. We document our findings along the four perspectives the banks use for their business reporting and that reflect the banks’ main stakeholders: shareholders, customers, employees and the community.

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