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This paper investigates the extent to which delayed expected loan loss recognition (DELR) is associated with greater vulnerability of banks to three distinct dimensions of risk: (1) stock market liquidity risk, (2) downside tail risk of individual banks, and (3) codependence of downside tail risk among banks. We hypothesize that DELR increases vulnerability to downside risk by creating expected loss overhangs that threaten future capital adequacy and by degrading bank transparency, which increases financing frictions and opportunities for risk-shifting. We find that DELR is associated with higher correlations between bank-level illiquidity and both aggregate banking sector illiquidity and market returns (i.e., higher liquidity risks) during recessions, suggesting that high DELR banks as a group may simultaneously face elevated financing frictions and enhanced opportunities for risk-shifting behavior in crisis periods. With respect to downside risk, we find that during recessions DELR is associated with significantly higher risk of individual banks suffering severe drops in their equity values, where this association is magnified for banks with low capital levels. Consistent with increased systemic risk, we find that DELR is associated with significantly higher codependence between downside risk of individual banks and downside risk of the banking sector. We theorize that downside risk vulnerability at the individual bank level can translate into systemic risk by virtue of DELR creating a common source of risk vulnerability across high DELR banks simultaneously, which leads to risk codependence among banks and systemic effects from banks acting as part of a herd.

This study provides evidence that the use of conservative accounting in debt contracting depends on the enforceability of the contract. To test the effect of debt contract enforcement on borrowers' timely loss recognition, we exploit the staggered introduction of enhanced debt contract enforcement in Indian states as a natural experiment, where the implementation of the enforcement is exogenous to the accounting choices and borrowing behavior of firms. The main results show that enhanced enforcement has a significant positive effect on the timeliness of loss recognition of borrowing firms. We find that the effect is strongest for firms that increased their overall borrowing and for firms with high levels of tangible assets, consistent with a collateral-based explanation. This study also provides causal evidence that firms adopt conservative accounting due to lenders' demand.

This study empirically examines the joint effect of financial anomaly risk and ESG performance on accounting conservatism using accrual models, market models, and earnings time-series models. Financial anomaly scores are obtained using unsupervised machine learning to identify reporting anomalies for firms. Our findings suggest that higher financial anomaly risk is negatively related to accounting conservatism through delayed or reduced loss recognition. ESG engagement serves as a moderating variable to mitigate conditional conservatism losses partially for both accrual- and earnings-based models, conditional on financial anomaly risk; otherwise, ESG engagement has a weak or insignificant effect on market-based models. ESG practice is therefore a state-dependent conditional governor to complement traditional governance structures, depending on both levels of anomaly risk as well as accounting models used to derive conservatism measures. Our findings have practical implications for investors and government regulators, as well as managers, which emphasize that ESG practice is not universally beneficial to conservatism but can further improve reporting quality, conditional on certain risk levels.

Accounting conservatism is a quality of earnings positively associated with the strength of banking regulation and supervision and also high market discipline, but there still remains the unresolved question of the way these three pillars of Basel II interact with each other. We analyse how regulatory and supervisory regimes in the banking industry clearly interact with market discipline measures, such as listing status, ownership, market concentration and disclosure requirements between ten years before Basel II fails, drawing upon data from 14,651 bank year observations from 54 different countries. According to our findings, there is a clear correlation between the strength of the enforcement of regulation and supervision and accounting conservatism success in countries where market discipline fails. That is to say, the supervisory power reinforces the effect of listing status, ownership and concentration on conservatism whereas the capital regulatory system mitigates the effect of market discipline on conservatism. We also evidence that in a powerful regulatory system, more disclosure requirements are associated in less conservatism policies in financial entities. Strong increases in regulation, its enforcement and supervisory power introduced in the Basel III mechanism is subject to the debate posed in this paper. The quality of accounting earnings can be improved to prevent bank failures through the application of strong Pillars I and II, i.e., regulation and supervision. Having said that, market discipline still remains a key factor in achieving financial stability ©2023 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM - Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

ABSTRACT This article evaluates the impact of the disclosure of the participation of Brazilian firms listed on the Bolsa Brasil Balcão (B3) in corruption scandals through media scrutiny and by disclosure of independent auditors on the quality of accounting information, measured from the perspective of accounting conservatism. We examine the possible theoretical link between the disclosure of corruption scandals and the quality of accounting information in the Brazilian context. Brazil has gone through successive corruption scandals involving firms and government entities in different levels. Accounting can be an important tool to mitigate said risks based on the artifacts it has to inform key stakeholders. However, it is necessary to identify the extent to which these artifacts can be influenced by the actors involved in these scandals. The research places accounting as an instrument subject to pressures from different interests and that may be shaped to them. Although accounting is an instrument that must aim to reduce information asymmetry, preventing the harmful effects of corruption, in specific contexts, it can be used in the opposite direction, such as in cases of corruption and economic crises. We used the model based on Ball and Shivakumar (2005) with specific modeling characteristics for corruption and crisis. The models were estimated using the Stata 13 software using the pooled approach using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation method, clustered by year and economic sector, and the Generalized Least Squares (GSL) estimator. The results point to the presence of conservatism when disclosing involvement in investigations of corruption crimes in Brazil. This behavior was less intense in firms effectively mentioned in these events. These results highlight the relevance of studies aimed at clarifying the connections between corruption and accounting reports, enabling the development of measures to curb corruption in the business environment. RESUMO O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o impacto da divulgação da participação de empresas brasileiras listadas na Brasil, Bolsa, Balcão (B3) em escândalos de corrupção, por meio do escrutínio da mídia e por divulgação dos auditores independentes na qualidade das informações contábeis, medida sob a perspectiva do conservadorismo contábil. Este artigo buscou esclarecer o possível elo teórico entre a divulgação de escândalos de corrupção e a qualidade da informação contábil no contexto brasileiro. O Brasil tem passado por sucessivos escândalos de corrupção envolvendo empresas e entidades governamentais nas diversas esferas. A contabilidade pode ser um importante instrumento de mitigação deste tipo de risco a partir dos artefatos que possui para informar os principais interessados. Mas é preciso identificar em que medida esses artefatos podem sofrer influência dos atores envolvidos nesses escândalos. A pesquisa coloca a contabilidade como um instrumento sujeito a pressões de diferentes interesses e que se molda a eles. Representando um instrumento que deve funcionar para diminuir a assimetria de informação, coibindo os efeitos nocivos da corrupção, a contabilidade pode estar sendo usada de forma contrária em contextos específicos, como em casos de corrupção e crises econômicas. Utilizou-se o modelo baseado em Ball e Shivakumar (2005) com características específicas de modelagem para corrupção e crise. Os modelos foram estimados no software Stata 13 por meio da abordagem pooled com método de estimação Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários (MQO) clusterizado por ano e setor econômico e estimador Generalized Least Squares (GSL). Os resultados apontam a presença de conservadorismo quando da divulgação de envolvimento em investigações de crimes de corrupção no Brasil. Esse comportamento se apresentou com menor intensidade em empresas efetivamente citadas nesses eventos. Esses resultados ressaltam a relevância dos estudos que visam esclarecer as conexões entre corrupção e relatórios contábeis, possibilitando o desenvolvimento de medidas para coibir práticas de corrupção no ambiente de negócios.

We provide empirical evidence of the effect of managerial risk incentives on financial reporting conservatism. We hypothesize that firms use greater accounting conservatism as a means of addressing increased firm risk arising from excessive managerial risk incentives provided by option compensation. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find a positive association between excessive managerial risk incentives and accounting conservatism measured as asymmetric timeliness of loss recognition. By contrast, we find no impact by normal (anticipated) risk-taking on accounting conservatism. Further analysis shows that the association between excessive managerial risk incentives and accounting conservatism is more pronounced when firms face more severe debtholder–shareholder conflicts. We also find that while cost of debt financing is positively associated with both anticipated and excessive risk incentives, the relationship with the latter is weakened by timelier loss recognition, suggesting firms with heightened risk incentives could economically benefit from using more conservative accounting.

We use antitakeover laws passed by several states in the mid-1980s and early 1990s as an exogenous increase in agency conflicts and examine how these laws affect the demand for asymmetric timeliness of loss recognition ( ATLR ). Consistent with the debt-based contracting demand for ATLR , we find an increase in ATLR after the passage of antitakeover laws for firms with high contracting pressures. These increases are incremental to those found in control firms that face similar pressures but whose states did not pass antitakeover laws. We do not find comparable changes in ATLR for firms with higher agency costs of equity. In contrast to the observed increases in ATLR , we find no change in the short-window information content of earnings announcements. Overall, our results suggest that higher agency conflicts result in a heightened demand for ATLR in financial statements but not for more forward-looking new information. Further, these demands seem to emanate from debtholders and not from equityholders.

This study aims to examine whether International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) convergence process adds value to the accounting quality dimensions, including accruals quality, earnings smoothing, timely loss recognition and earnings persistence. Design/methodology/approach It analyzes the hypothesis of accounting quality changes in post-IFRS convergence by using the univariate and multivariate statistics. Particularly, the authors rely on panel data analyses using industrial companies' data from 2008 until 2014, comprising 3,861 firm-years observations, in Indonesia. Findings The results indicate that there is no conclusive evidence that all accounting quality dimensions including accruals quality, earnings smoothing, timely loss recognition and earnings persistence increased in post-IFRS convergence. Practical implications The findings of this study may help regulators and standard setters to consider future adoption of IFRS, mostly to figure out the best \"formula\" to increase the usefulness of accounting information in post-IFRS convergence. Originality/value Rather than doing piecemeal work, the current study focuses on IFRS convergence on a broader aspect of accounting quality dimensions. It also focuses on the convergence process of IFRS as an alternative of full adoption, which has been the focus of many research studies.

This paper digests the relationship between the manipulation of losses and price reversals in the Chinese stock market. Timely loss recognition is involved in detecting the manipulation of losses, while price reversals are investigated by momentum profit. In addition, two-way sorting momentum portfolios are employed to connect manipulating losses with price reversals. Companies with low timely loss recognition aggressively manipulate their losses, and our results indicate that they generate much more significantly negative momentum profits. As a consequence, they cannot build up any immunity against reversal risks and encounter much higher reversal risks than other companies. Such findings still hold after the risk adjustments using asset pricing models come into play and when controlling for the calendar effect. This research indeed suggests that investors should exercise caution when dealing with companies whose financial information is too positive. Such companies may dress up their financial reports, thereby significantly increasing the risks associated with price reversals.

Our paper makes a fundamental contribution by studying loan loss provisioning over the credit cycle as three distinct phases. Looking at the three distinct phases of the financial crisis – the pre-crisis period, crisis period, and post-crisis period – is important as loan loss provisioning is driven by different factors in each, in part due to extensive shifts in (or in the application of) regulatory rule. Controlling for credit market information using data from the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Surveys (SLOOS) we extend the work of previous studies of forward-looking loan loss provisions using the delayed expected loss recognition approach. We contribute to the growing literature on forward-looking loan loss provisioning and early in the cycle loss recognition by incorporating a broader range of available credit information and explicitly controlling for structural breaks in the sample corresponding to the financial crisis.