Purpose
This study aims to investigate the impact of financial instrument disclosures under the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) 7 on the cost of equity capital (COEC).

Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of 56 banks listed in the Gulf cooperation council (GCC) stock markets over 7 years from 2011 to 2017. A self-constructed index is used to measure the compliance level in addition to quantitative methods and panel data regression adopted to test the research hypotheses.

Findings
The authors find that the compliance level with IFRS 7 does not improve from 2011 until 2017 in the GCC banks. The authors also find that compliance with IFRS 7 disclosures reduces the COEC.

Originality/value
The authors also provide new empirical evidence that the level of mandatory financial instruments disclosures under IFRS 7 reduces the COEC. The findings offer policy implications. It shows that compliance with IFRS 7 disclosure requirements leads to desirable economic consequences.