The issue surrounding policy makers is whether dividend announcements have information content. This study investigated into this concept to determine the extent, to which dividend announcements have information content, its effect on firm value and what this implied on the semi strong efficiency of the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). A sample of trading delays in each year for the period 1999- 2003 was drawn from firms listed on NSE. The data was purely secondary data of the firms listed on the NSE, stock prices and dividend announcements. The event study methodology was used analyze information content of dividend announcements for the four firms.
The results based on an estimation window of more than hundred trading days per year show that, for the analyzed firms, dividend announcements do indeed convey useful information about the future value of a firm. This empirical investigation came up with the following findings: First Dividend announcements have pertinent information, which is consistent with Modigliani and Miller (1958) information content hypothesis. Second, the information content in dividend announcements significantly affects the firm value as shown by large spikes in the graphs. Third the NSE is not semi strong from efficiency and therefore market participants can make abnormal profits by trading on public information, such as dividend announcements

Purpose: The study sought to determine the effect of consumer protection function on financial performance of SACCOs in Kenya.Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target population comprised of registered 181 deposit-taking SACCOs as at 31st December 2014 and the three licensed CRBs in Kenya. Stratified random sampling was used in the study, where SACCOs were grouped into five respective strata which were then randomly selected. The SACCOs were grouped into five respective strata of government based, teachers based, farmers based, private institutions based and community based. The study sampled 135 of the 181 (74.5%) licensed deposit taking SACCOs since these were the only licensed deposit-taking SACCOs by 2014. The choice of the licensed deposit taking SACCOs in Kenya was very objective since it was possible to obtain information that is representative of Kenya. In addition, SACCOs form the smaller arm in the financial sector and in most cases deals with a larger group of clients from the informal sector as opposed to other financial institutions like banks. Both primary and secondary data were analyzed using SPSS software, and statistics generated included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The particular descriptive statistics used included frequencies and percentages while the particular inferential statistics included Pearson correlation analysis and regression. Correlation analysis was used to establish relationships between the consumer protection function and financial performances. Regression analysis was used to establish the significance of the variables and the degree of causal effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable. The hypotheses testing were conducted using simple regression model.Findings: From the data analysis the study concluded that there was a significant and positive relationship between consumer protection function and financial performance thus the existence of credit reference bureaus was suitable for improving financial performance of SACCOs. This implies that that Credit reference bureaus have led to consumer protection and increased customers’ rights. Similarly, credit reference bureaus have led to assumption that borrowing is a right regardless of capabilities. Credit reference bureaus have reduces undesired monopolistic actions of lenders. Lastly, credit reference bureaus have led to reduced bad “culture” on loan repayment.Recommendation: The study recommended that lenders should ensure that they have accurate information before listing the unworthy borrowers to avoid unnecessary legal battles which may affect performance as a measure for customer rights protection.

Purpose- It is complicated to efficiently manage the bank’s portfolio, simultaneously maximize returns and minimize risks while being subject to managerial and regulatory constraints. In the financial industry, the size of a bank is used to assist in capturing economies as well as diseconomies of scale. Design/Methodology- As in cases of most literature from finance, natural logarithms of banks' total assets were made use of to measure commercial banks’ size. The 43 commercial banking institutions having an official license from CBK by December 2017 were the target population of this study. The study analyzed Time-Series Cross-Sectional unbalanced secondary panel data obtained from all the 43 commercial banking institutions in Kenya for fifteen years ranging from 2003 to 2017. Findings- Study findings revealed a positive effect of bank size on ROE and ROA that was significant. Correlation analysis revealed a positive association of bank size on the financial performance of banks in Kenya, which was significant. Bank size had a significant moderating effect on the relationship of banks portfolio diversification and financial performance of banks in Kenya. Practical Implications- The findings on bank size insinuated that a higher size of entire asset of banks is most probable to accelerate the bank to diversify into feasible opportunities on investment, traverse more enhanced lines of business, increase capacity in market power and, produce increased value that boosts the firm to profit from economies of scale and wider scope and henceforth superior and increased financial performance.

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Capital structure management is one of the most crucial corporate financial management functions in a firm since appropriate debt policy is reported to maximize the value of a firm. Kenya is ranked second in Africa after South Africa in regards to financial deepness. This means that the cost of debt should not have adverse effect financial performance. This observation raises fundamental question: does debt financing leads to poor financial performance in Kenya? This research sought to investigate the role of observed leverage on financial performance of listed non- financial firms in Kenya. The study tested capital structure theories and therefore adopted a positivists approach, guided by causal research design. The study population was 35 non-financial sub-sector firms out of the 65 firms listed at the NSE, Kenya. 18 firms were excluded in this study since they belong to banking and insurance sub-sectors, which have a highly regulated capital structure. Secondary data collection sheet was used to collect data for each of the variables from audited financial statements of the listed firms for a 10-year period (2006-2015). Panel regression analysis revealed that observed leverage measured by (LDR) had a significant positive coefficient with performance metrics. However, the leverage measure using TDR showed a negative and significant role on performance metrics. This study recommends that for listed firms to improve their financial performance, they should use more long-term debts than short-term debts.