This study finds that the requirement of ASC 842 for firms to capitalize operating leases in financial statements beginning in 2019 resulted in firms affected by the standard reducing existing debt amounts on average between 7% and 10% relative to unaffected firms. We also find that firms with...

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...

We exploit cross-country variation in banks’ confidential reporting requirements under COREP, the common European supervisory risk reporting framework, as an indicator for banking supervisors’ preference for private information. Our results suggest that a stronger preference for confidential...

Banks play a central role in creating liquidity for the economy by financing illiquid assets with liquid liabilities. This paper examines the effect of accounting restatements on bank liquidity creation. Using a difference-in-differences research design, I show that restatements trigger a...

More and more established companies are getting involved in the cryptomarket and/or considering cryptocurrencies as an alternative to cash. In addition, recently, El Salvador became the first country to declare Bitcoin as a legal tender. Against this background, this paper examines how holdings...

Accounting standards and prudential regulation are key elements of the financial system and are increasingly seen as complementary concepts despite their divergent objectives. This paper examines the growing convergence of accounting and Basel capital requirements in the wake of the latest...

In 2011, the largest banks were designated as Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) by the Financial Stability Board. While these banks face closer supervision and additional constraints, they also benefit from an implicit guarantee from their governments. The changed environment for these...

Using the SEC’s 2004 decision to begin publicly disclosing its comment letters, we study the consequences of increased regulatory transparency on the banking industry. Because the SEC only issues comment letters to public banks, we exploit a difference-in-differences design to examine the...

Supervisors frequently use formal enforcement tools to intervene in banks’ financial reporting. However, when managers exercise their discretion within the boundaries of accounting rules, supervisors have to turn to soft and informal actions to nudge, rather than force banks to change their...

Academic research on loan loss provisioning and the earlier incurred credit losses (ICL) model has a long tradition in the literature. Academic criticism of the ICL was taken up by the Financial Stability Board after the financial crisis of 2018, leading to a fundamental revision of accounting...