At the peak of the financial crisis in October 2008, the IASB amended IAS 39 to grant companies the option of abandoning fair value recognition for selected financial assets. Using a comprehensive global sample of publicly listed IFRS banks, we find that banks use the reclassification option to...

This paper is concerned with the allegation that fair value accounting rules have contributed significantly to the recent financial crisis. It focuses on one particular channel for that contribution: the impact of fair value on actual or potential failure of banks. The paper compares four...

The North Atlantic Financial Crisis of 2007 did suddenly and massively disrupt the activities of financial markets and financial institutions that were organised under a market-based financial architecture at local and international levels. Both corporate and public policies were at the origin...

EU politicians pressured the IASB to change the accounting rules for financial assets at the peak of the financial crisis in October 2008. The new rules enabled banks to forgo the recognition of unrealized fair value losses through reclassifications. This paper puts the ensuing regulatory relief...

Objective – This paper shows how leverage affects firm's fragility and financial soundness during financial and industry crises.Methodology/Technique – Long term inefficient and zombie firms are explored through the effects of leverage in additional tests.Findings – There are two main...

We investigate the effect of executives and directors with prior banking crisis experience on bank outcomes around the global financial crisis (GFC). Executives and directors with previous experience leading banks through a bank crisis may have been uniquely able to understand the risks,...

We investigate the relation between the quality of bank regulatory reporting prior to and bank stability during the financial crisis that erupted in 2008. Using a large sample of private and public commercial banks in the United States and the incidence of accounting restatements as a proxy for...

A topic of recent interest in accounting research has been the investigation of the role of fair value accounting (FVA) in the global financial crisis. This research focused on finding a link during the crisis time-period and often states that “accounting is only a messenger”. The model...

Bank regulators and academics have long conjectured the beneficial effects of smoothing in loan loss provisions (i.e., making higher provisions during good times so as to avoid doing so during bad times) for bank lending and stability, while accounting regulators express concerns about its...

Regulators frequently relax accounting rules during a financial crisis as a means of regulatory forbearance. The new accounting options provide banks with an opportunity for an accrual-based increase in their regulatory capital. The use of such an accounting option helps reduce the costs of...