This paper is motivated by high levels of non-performing loans in the Zimbabwean banking sector since dollarization in 2009. Banks are well known for their function of providing liquidity in the economy. Normal loan awarding require credit analysis. Credit analysis is undertaken to assess the...

We study whether bank managers' use their discretion in estimating the allowance for loan losses (ALL) for efficiency or for opportunistic reasons. We do so by examining whether the use of this discretion relates to bank stability and bank risk taking, or whether it relates to earnings...

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...

This paper examines banks' disclosures and loss recognition in the financial crisis and identifies several core issues for the link between accounting and financial stability. Our analysis suggests that, going into the financial crisis, banks' disclosures about relevant risk exposures were...

Using a dataset covering 3 million commercial borrower financial statements, we document a substantial, nearly monotonic decline in banks’ use of attested financial statements (AFS) in lending over the past two decades. Two market forces help explain this trend. First, technological advances...

We examine the relevance of sustainability in bank lending contracts by analyzing the design of syndicated loans containing sustainability-performance-pricing provisions. Using a sustainability-linked loan contract sample from recent years, we document: (1) a dramatic increase in...

Starting in October 2013, auditors of premium-listed firms in the United Kingdom are mandated to prepare an expanded auditor’s report that provides details on audit procedures, risks of material misstatement (RMMs), and materiality thresholds. This regulatory change is important to study,...

We provide new evidence on how ECB's monetary policy decisions affect firms' bank loan expectations in the euro area. We use firm-level data derived from the ECB Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises for the period 2009 to 2022 and identify the impact of monetary policy by comparing the...

We provide new evidence on how ECB’s monetary policy decisions affect firms’ bank loan expectations in the euro area. We use firm-level data derived from the ECB Survey on the Access to Finance of Enterprises for the period 2009 to 2022 and identify the impact of monetary policy by comparing...