Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/335208 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Citation: 
[Journal:] Review of Accounting Studies [ISSN:] 1573-7136 [Volume:] 30 [Issue:] 4 [Publisher:] Springer US [Place:] New York, NY [Year:] 2025 [Pages:] 3677-3718
Publisher: 
Springer US, New York, NY
Abstract: 
This study investigates the role of individual managers in banks’ financial reporting. We exploit the connectedness between different managers and find that individual bank managers explain approximately 19 percent of banks’ loan loss provisions. This observation is consistent with the substantial reporting discretion that individual bank managers use in the estimation of loan loss provisions and that is increasingly subject to financial stability concerns by prudential supervisors. Our results suggest that these concerns are valid, as individual management discretion is associated with greater discretionary loan loss provisions and proxies for opportunistic accounting, especially the reduction in the timeliness of these provisions and the lesser degree to which the allowance for credit losses maps into future charge-offs. These findings are relevant for the design of regulatory measures aimed at limiting the managerial influence on accounting choices in banking and can inform debates on the desirability of discretion within the reporting process of banks.
Subjects: 
Manager Characteristics
Bank Governance
Top Management Team
Loan Loss Provisions
Timeliness
Upper Echelons Theory
AKM Method
JEL: 
M14
M41
M48
M52
G20
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article
Document Version: 
Published Version

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