scholarly journals Measuring the Effectiveness of National Enforcers in the IFRS Context: A Proactive Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Quagli ◽  
Francesco Avallone ◽  
Paola Ramassa ◽  
Lorenzo Motta

It is widely acknowledged that an effective enforcement system represents a crucial element to achieve significant improvements in financial reporting through the adoption of high-quality accounting standards. Indeed, the quality of financial reporting is considerably influenced not only by the standards to be adopted but also by their actual implementation, and consequently by enforcement mechanisms.The topic has generated considerable interest among scholars, who devoted their attention to developing different measures of the quality of the enforcement system. Building upon this literature, this paper aims at exploring the accounting enforcement system and focuses on controls over financial reporting considering two levels, namely the auditing activity and the controls performed by national enforcers.This paper extends the prior literature by proposing a dynamic measure of the accounting enforcement system capturing controls at those two levels. More specifically, the index here proposed focuses on the quality of the accounting enforcement operated by national enforcers in terms of proactivity, intended as the national enforcers’ capability to detect problems not highlighted in the auditors’ opinions, thus shifting the focus from an input to an output perspective. Indeed, the activities of auditors and national enforcers are strictly connected, given that the auditors’ opinion is the first public output of accounting controls and that is normally one of the bases for further investigation by national enforcers. An illustrative empirical analysis is carried out on the German and the Italian contexts to show the potential of the index for enforcement studies.

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (04) ◽  
pp. 1850022
Author(s):  
Yaseen S. Alhaj-Yaseen ◽  
Kean Wu ◽  
Leslie B. Fletcher

This paper examines the changes in earnings quality of registered American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) as a result of switching accounting standards. We aim to shed light on the potential impact of International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) adoption on US firms. A suboptimal approach to achieve this goal is through examination of US firms’ surrogates such as ADRs. Unlike previous studies, we made a distinction between registered and unregistered ADRs and affirmed that registered ADRs are the closest surrogates with which to conduct our analysis because they are exclusively required to adhere to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s stringent disclosure requirements. When cross-listing their equity on the US exchanges, foreign issuers can file their financial reports with the SEC using IFRS, US GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), or their domestic GAAP with reconciliation to US GAAP. An improvement in earnings quality is documented when ADRs adopt US GAAP or IFRS versus domestic GAAP. However, when the comparison is made between US GAAP and IFRS, no difference in earnings quality is documented. These results indicate that switching to high-quality accounting standards is likely to improve earnings quality. This improvement is maximized when the difference between reporting standards is high and minimized if otherwise. Our conclusion is that the adoption of IFRS in the US is unlikely to change earnings quality of local issuers. Moreover, we drew a distinction between reconciliation with and adoption of high-quality accountings standards and find that while the former can enhance earnings quality, the latter can further improve it.


10.26458/1743 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-36
Author(s):  
Luminita Ionescu

Accounting errors and fraud are common in most businesses, but there is a difference between fraud and misinterpretation of communication or accounting regulations. The role of management in preventing fraud becomes important in the last decades and the importance of auditing in curbing corruption is increasingly revealed. There is a strong connection between fraud and corruption, accelerated by electronic systems and modern platforms.The most recent developments tend to confirm that external auditing is curbing corruption, due to international accounting and auditing standards at national and regional levels. Thus, a better implementation of accounting standards and high quality of external control could prevent errors and fraud in accounting, and reduce corruption, as well.The aim of this paper is to present some particular aspects of errors and fraud in accounting, and how external audit could ensure accuracy and accountability in financial reporting. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 102-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Newman Wadesango ◽  
Edmore Tasa ◽  
Khazamula Milondzo ◽  
Ongayi Vongai Wadesango

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in its objectives and preamble, presume that IFRS adoption and perceived compliance to regulatory framework is associated with increased financial reporting quality. Based on these assumptions, this desktop study reviewed several documents to determine whether the IFRS adoption has led to increased financial reporting quality in Zimbabwe. The researchers reviewed literature on how the IAS/IFRS and regulations affect the financial reporting quality of listed companies. The factors around IFRS adoption were identified (mandatory, voluntary and convergence) and discussed in relation to the financial reporting quality. Evidence from previous studies conducted in line with this same issue shows that there is no conclusive evidence on how IFRS and regulations affect the financial reporting quality. Issues to be addressed in further studies include the importance of financial statements prepared under IFRS framework and the importance of compliance with accounting and auditing requirements.


Author(s):  
Kawa W. Muhamad ◽  
Subhi M. Saleh ◽  
Kees van Paridon

This study considers the question whether the changes in Accounting Standards has led to companies making less use of earnings management. The paper is an attempt to investigate whether the application of high quality standards like International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is related to high financial reporting quality. This study addresses this issue empirically. Furthermore, this research examines whether German companies that have applied IFRS have less earnings management compared to German companies that report according to the German Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GGAAP). The sample, consisting of two equally large listed companies in Germany (Südzucker Group and Henkel Group) from 2003-2014. The study suggests that IFRS-adopters show different earnings management performance compared to companies reporting under German GAAP. This finding contributes to the discussion on whether high quality standards are appropriate and operational in countries with weak investor protection rights. The result shows that adopters of IFRS in Germany can be related with less use of earnings management as a result of changes in accounting standards. This result is contradictory with previous research that was done by Van Tendeloo and Vanstraelen, (2005), and consistent with the previous research conducted by Ball et al. (2003).


Author(s):  
Thuan Quoc Pham

Financial reporting quality is one the most interesting topics which draw a great deal of attention to researchers and scientists in the field of accounting (Céline Michailesco, 2010). In the review of research on financial information from 1980 to 2016, Pham (2016) found that characteristics of useful financial information are relatively diverse with as many as 15 attributes being identified. In addition, he also found that all research in any period has employed the characteristics published by professional associations such as American Institute of Accountants, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB as theoretical basis. Research on the quality of financial information is diverse yet have many things in common, above all is the Relevance characteristic which considered to be the basic qualitative component of the quality of financial information in financial statements. Conceptual Framework officially issued by FASB & IASB in 2010 (FASB & IASB 2010) has further confirmed Relevance is the basic quality component of financial information. Compared with previous announcements, there has been a considerable change in the criteria and attributes used to evaluate the appropriateness of Relevance characteristic of financial information in financial statements. This study aims at confirming the importance of the Relevance component in evaluating the quality of financial information, clarifyingg the characteristics of Relevance measurement before and after Conceptual Framework 2010 and constructing relevant scales as well as measuring the qualitative characteristic of Relevance among enterprises in Vietnam.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed M. Abdel-Meguid ◽  
Jared Jennings ◽  
Kari Joseph Olsen ◽  
Mark T. Soliman

Non-GAAP earnings provide managers the flexibility to exclude GAAP items to either produce a more informative performance measure or provide them the ability to opportunistically exclude recurring expenses from non-GAAP earnings. Prior literature examines the use of this form of disclosure at the firm level, although it is ultimately management's decisions. We extend prior non-GAAP literature by examining whether the use and quality of non-GAAP earnings is influenced by CEO personality traits; namely CEO narcissism. We find narcissistic CEOs are more likely to exclude expenses from non-GAAP earnings and that the magnitude of exclusions is greater. We also find that those non-GAAP exclusions are more persistent, and thus lower quality. Our results shed light on the disclosure practice of non-GAAP earnings and show how narcissistic CEOs are more likely to take advantage of the discretion in financial reporting disclosures in order to benefit the firm and themselves.


Author(s):  
Kátia Lemos ◽  
Sara Serra ◽  
Amidel Barros

Based on the premise that the quality of the audit is related to the quality of the financial reporting, the purpose of this chapter is to verify if the audit is a determining factor in derivative financial instruments disclosures. However, the academic literature has revealed that audit quality is influenced by a number of factors, such as gender, experience, and auditor's fees, as well as the type of audit firm (Big4 or not Big4). In order to achieve the proposed objective, a disclosure index was prepared, based on the requirements of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), applied to companies listed on Euronext Lisbon, excluding the sports corporations. The results revealed that the level of disclosure is influenced by the size of the audited company and by the auditor's gender, being greater in the larger companies and in the companies audited by a male auditor.


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