The objective of this paper is to investigate whether banks view the information on the off-balance sheet liabilities (specifically, operating leases) disclosed in the notes to the financial statements as more reliable when it is audited by brand name auditors (i.e., a Big 4 audit firm). To the...

In this study, we examine whether banks' use of the loan loss provision (LLP) to manage earnings is associated with 1) the extent to which banks hold assets subject to fair value reporting and 2) the use of an industry specialist auditor. We find that banks with a greater proportion of assets...