I examine whether bank regulators and external auditors have conflicting effects on loan loss provision timeliness, an accounting choice associated with important economic consequences and a potential conflict between regulators and auditors. In the absence of the other group, auditors and...

Exploiting the staggered state-level adoption of the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act (IBBEA), we examine whether and how banking deregulation affects firms’ auditor choices. We find that an exogenous increase in the degree of interstate branch banking deregulation...

We discuss “Economic Consequences of Mandatory Auditor Reporting to Bank Regulators” by Balakrishnan, De George, Ertan, and Scobie (BDES, Journal of Accounting and Economics, forthcoming). BDES concludes that a key benefit of mandatory auditor reporting to bank regulators is reduced bank...

In this study, we empirically investigate the relationship between financial and auditing requirements, capital requirements, official supervisory power, and the likelihood of receiving a qualified audit opinion. The sample consists of 71 qualified financial statements and 17,526 unqualified...

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) of 1991 was designed, among other things, to introduce risk-based deposit insurance, increase capital requirements, and improve banks' internal controls. Of particular interest in this study are the requirements for annual audit...

We examine the unintended consequences of the 2005 increase in the asset threshold for FDICIA internal control reporting requirements from $500 million to $1 billion. We focus on a test sample of banks that grew from between $100 million to $500 million in assets prior to the change in...

I examine how changes to a bank's regulatory requirements affect liquidity creation. Using amendments in 2005 to the FDIC Improvement Act (FDICIA) and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), I document that treating each regulatory change as a separate event leads to confounding results. Ignoring...

I empirically examine the evolution of loan loss accounting across banks that differ categorically by external auditing practice. Using a partial adjustment model, and a sample of 75,505 observations on affiliated banks, 1995–2009, I find evidence of convergence across audit categories in...

An important question in banking is how strict supervision affects bank lending and in turn local business activity. Supervisors forcing banks to recognize losses could choke off lending and amplify local economic woes. But stricter supervision could also change how banks assess and manage...