Corporate social responsibility by business organizations is a key business success factor and a weapon to survive in the global competitive business environment. Prior CSR researches have forwarded inconclusive/ mixed results regarding the theoretical relationship between firm attributes, board characteristics and CSR, in addition to their weakness of neglecting the influence of governance mechanisms in ascertaining the level of firm’s CSR investment. Therefore; this study examined the relationship between firm attributes, board characteristics and corporate social responsibility. In trying to achieve this, panel data were extracted and used from the Annual Reports and Accounts of thirteen (13) sampled banks out of sixteen (16) listed deposit money banks in the Nigerian Stock Exchange for a period of eight (8) years (2006-2013) which was arrived using convenience sampling technique. Both historical and descriptive methods were adopted in collecting data, while the Generalized Least Squares (GLS) multiple regression was employed as technique of data analysis. The study found that firm profitability has insignificant positive impact on the corporate social responsibility of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria.

 The study also found that firm size, Independent Directors and Female Directors have significant positive influence on the corporate social responsibility of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria, while Liquidity was found to have significant negative effect on the corporate social responsibility of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria. In view of the results found, it is therefore recommended that the management of listed deposit money banks in Nigeria should expand their size by acquiring more assets, operate at optimum liquidity level by regulating their deposit – liquidity - loan relationship, maintain proportions of at least thirty to seventy of board independence and if possible ensure gender equilibrium while determining female directors representation on the board as this will increase their investment in corporate social responsibility.