Pillar 3: The impact of language complexity on the preferences of commercial bank website users

Abstract

This research explores the impact of document complexity and readability on user preferences for disclosure information on commercial bank web portals, with a focus on Pillar 3 disclosures. The study investigates the usage patterns of disclosed information by stakeholders. Through an analysis of web portal access variables and document complexity and readability measures, the study identifies correlations between text complexity/ readability and user preferences. The experiment used traditional readability measures like the Gunning Fog Index and Flesch Reading Ease but also focused on less-used metrics such as LIX, various text characteristics, and part-of-speech metrics. The findings reveal that while stakeholders show interest in financial documents despite their complexity, preferences in using these documents vary based on document type and readability. Notably, documents with higher complexity tend to attract more attention, suggesting potential challenges in accessibility and comprehension. The paper highlights the importance of presenting disclosure information in a manner that enhances readability and accessibility to better engage stakeholders. Additionally, the research introduces user preference indicators aligned with web portal access metrics, providing insights into stakeholders' behavior. The research followed up on previous findings of extremely low interest in Pillar 3 information from commercial bank stakeholders. The results showed that stakeholders are more interested in less demanding and more readable texts such as annual reports, and as Pillar 3 documents are more complex and harder to read, they are less interested in them. The research concludes that stakeholders' increasing interest in this information requires finding approaches to presenting it in less complicated and more readable ways.