The association between voluntary disclosure in audit committee reports and banks’ earnings management
ISSN: 0268-6902
Article publication date: 4 June 2020
Issue publication date: 21 July 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the relation between voluntary disclosure (VD) in audit committee reports and banks’ earnings management. It investigates whether such disclosure reflects an attempt by audit committees to engage in impression management.
Design/methodology/approach
The study considers top US bank holding companies from 2006 to 2015. The authors develop a scoring grid to measure VD in audit committee reports. The scoring grid is based on recommendations from 10 industry and governance organizations’ reports that analyzed audit committee disclosures. Multivariate regression analyzes are used in this paper.
Findings
Descriptive statistics reveal that the level of VD in audit committee reports did not increase significantly from 2006 to 2015. Multivariate analyzes indicate that whenever banks’ level of earnings management is high, audit committees increase the extent of their VDs in their reports. The authors infer from this finding that audit committees are using VDs as a vehicle for impression management.
Originality/value
This paper sheds light onto the motives behind audit committees’ VDs. The evidence, which is consistent with impression management by audit committees in their report, also provides further background to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent initiative to enhance VDs in the audit committee report.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge financial support from the Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair in Corporate Governance and the Institute for the Governance of Private and Public Organizations.
Citation
Sahyoun, N. and Magnan, M. (2020), "The association between voluntary disclosure in audit committee reports and banks’ earnings management", Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 35 No. 6, pp. 795-817. https://doi.org/10.1108/MAJ-05-2019-2279
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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