IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jebusi/v78y2015icp92-117.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Loan loss provisions, accounting constraints, and bank ownership structure

Author

Listed:
  • Balla, Eliana
  • Rose, Morgan J.

Abstract

We examine bank-level changes in the relationship between earnings and loan loss provisioning, a measure of earnings management, following the tightening of accounting constraints associated with the SEC's 1998 SunTrust Bank decision. By exploiting both temporal variation in the regulatory environment and cross-sectional variation in bank ownership structure, we find evidence that shortly after the SEC action, the relationship between earnings and provisions weakened for publicly-held banks but not for privately-held banks, consistent with reduced earnings management among publicly-held banks only. This difference does not persist over time, with evidence indicating a weakening of the relationship for both ownership types.

Suggested Citation

  • Balla, Eliana & Rose, Morgan J., 2015. "Loan loss provisions, accounting constraints, and bank ownership structure," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 92-117.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:78:y:2015:i:c:p:92-117
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconbus.2014.12.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148619514000794
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jeconbus.2014.12.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laeven, Luc & Majnoni, Giovanni, 2003. "Loan loss provisioning and economic slowdowns: too much, too late?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 178-197, April.
    2. Bikker, J.A. & Metzemakers, P.A.J., 2005. "Bank provisioning behaviour and procyclicality," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 141-157, April.
    3. Bouvatier, Vincent & Lepetit, Laetitia, 2008. "Banks' procyclical behavior: Does provisioning matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 513-526, December.
    4. Berger, Allen N. & Udell, Gregory F., 2004. "The institutional memory hypothesis and the procyclicality of bank lending behavior," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 458-495, October.
    5. George J. Benston & Larry D. Wall, 2005. "How should banks account for loan losses?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 90(Q4), pages 19-38.
    6. Lown, Cara & Morgan, Donald P., 2006. "The Credit Cycle and the Business Cycle: New Findings Using the Loan Officer Opinion Survey," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(6), pages 1575-1597, September.
    7. Dye, Ra, 1988. "Earnings Management In An Overlapping Generations Model," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 195-235.
    8. Ahmed, Anwer S. & Takeda, Carolyn & Thomas, Shawn, 1999. "Bank loan loss provisions: a reexamination of capital management, earnings management and signaling effects," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-25, November.
    9. Foos, Daniel & Norden, Lars & Weber, Martin, 2010. "Loan growth and riskiness of banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2929-2940, December.
    10. Bouvatier, Vincent & Lepetit, Laetitia, 2012. "Provisioning rules and bank lending: A theoretical model," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 25-31.
    11. Gunther, Jeffery W. & Moore, Robert R., 2003. "Loss underreporting and the auditing role of bank exams," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 153-177, April.
    12. Bouvatier, Vincent & Lepetit, Laetitia & Strobel, Frank, 2014. "Bank income smoothing, ownership concentration and the regulatory environment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 253-270.
    13. Beatty, A & Chamberlain, Sl & Magliolo, J, 1995. "Managing Financial Reports Of Commercial-Banks - The Influence Of Taxes, Regulatory Capital, And Earnings," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 231-261.
    14. Gunther, Jeffery W. & Moore, Robert R., 2003. "Early warning models in real time," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(10), pages 1979-2001, October.
    15. Simon H. Kwan, 2004. "Risk and return of publicly held versus privately owned banks," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue Sep, pages 97-107.
    16. Cornett, Marcia Millon & McNutt, Jamie John & Tehranian, Hassan, 2009. "Corporate governance and earnings management at large U.S. bank holding companies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 412-430, September.
    17. Adams, Brian & Carow, Kenneth A. & Perry, Tod, 2009. "Earnings management and initial public offerings: The case of the depository industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 2363-2372, December.
    18. Moyer, Susan E., 1990. "Capital adequacy ratio regulations and accounting choices in commercial banks," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 123-154, July.
    19. Asea, Patrick K. & Blomberg, Brock, 1998. "Lending cycles," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1-2), pages 89-128.
    20. Raghuram G. Rajan, 1994. "Why Bank Credit Policies Fluctuate: A Theory and Some Evidence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 399-441.
    21. Holod, Dmytro & Peek, Joe, 2007. "Asymmetric information and liquidity constraints: A new test," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 2425-2451, August.
    22. Timothy W. Koch & Larry D. Wall, 2000. "Bank loan-loss accounting: a review of theoretical and empirical evidence," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 85(Q2), pages 1-20.
    23. Fonseca, Ana Rosa & González, Francisco, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of bank income smoothing by managing loan-loss provisions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 217-228, February.
    24. Gunther Gebhardt & Zoltan Novotny-Farkas, 2011. "Mandatory IFRS Adoption and Accounting Quality of European Banks," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3-4), pages 289-333, April.
    25. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Egor Nikulin & Jeff Downing, 2021. "Loan-loss provisions, earnings management, and capital management by Russian banks: the impact of changes in banking regulation and oversight," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 659-677, December.
    2. Andries, Kathleen & Gallemore, John & Jacob, Martin, 2017. "The effect of corporate taxation on bank transparency: Evidence from loan loss provisions," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 307-328.
    3. Skała, Dorota, 2021. "Loan loss provisions and income smoothing – Do shareholders matter?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Ozili, Peterson K, 2021. "Banking sector earnings management using loan loss provisions in the Fintech era," MPRA Paper 105083, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Noor Hashim & Weijia Li & John O'Hanlon, 2019. "Reflections on the development of the FASB’s and IASB’s expected-loss methods of accounting for credit losses," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 682-725, September.
    6. Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Demir, Ender & Ozili, Peterson, 2021. "Loan loss provisioning of US banks: Economic policy uncertainty and discretionary behavior," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 923-935.
    7. Sehwa Kim, 2022. "Delays in Banks’ Loan Loss Provisioning and Economic Downturns: Evidence from the U.S. Housing Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 711-754, June.
    8. Aristei, David & Gallo, Manuela, 2019. "Loan loss provisioning by Italian banks: Managerial discretion, relationship banking, functional distance and bank risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 238-256.
    9. Ozili, Peterson K, 2019. "Bank loan loss provisioning during election years in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 96704, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Qaiser Rafique Yasser & Abdullah Al Mamun, 2017. "The Impact of Ownership Concentration on Firm Performance: Evidence from an Emerging Market," Emerging Economy Studies, International Management Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 34-53, May.
    11. Katherine Campbell & Cullen F. Goenner & Matthew Notbohm & Adam Smedema, 2022. "Political ideology and CEO performance under crisis," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 329-359, January.
    12. Elyas Elyasiani & Yuan Wen & Rongrong Zhang, 2017. "Institutional Ownership And Earning Management By Bank Holding Companies," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 40(2), pages 147-178, June.
    13. Ozili, Peterson K & Outa, Erick R, 2018. "Bank Earnings Smoothing During Mandatory IFRS adoption in Nigeria," MPRA Paper 89690, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Mohamed Gomaa & Kiridaran Kanagaretnam & Stuart Mestelman & Mohamed Shehata, 2019. "Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Replacing the Incurred Credit Loss Model of Bank Loan Loss Provisions with the International or US Accounting Standards Boards’ Expected Credit Loss Models," Department of Economics Working Papers 2019-10, McMaster University.
    15. Ozili, Peterson K, 2017. "Bank Loan Loss Provisions Research: A Review," MPRA Paper 76495, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Ozili, Peterson K, 2020. "Bank loan loss provisioning during election years: cross-country evidence," MPRA Paper 96639, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Yang, Ling, 2016. "Is Bank Supervision Effective? Evidence from the Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses," MPRA Paper 75761, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eliana Balla & Morgan J. Rose, 2011. "Loan loss reserves, accounting constraints, and bank ownership structure," Working Paper 11-09, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    2. Emrah Arbak, 2017. "Identifying the provisioning policies of Belgian banks," Working Paper Research 326, National Bank of Belgium.
    3. Domikowsky, Christian & Bornemann, Sven & Duellmann, Klaus & Pfingsten, Andreas, 2014. "Loan loss provisioning and procyclicality: Evidence from an expected loss model," Discussion Papers 39/2014, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    4. Malgorzata Olszak & Patrycja Chodnicka-Jaworska & Iwona Kowalska & Filip Œwita³a, 2017. "The effect of capital ratio on lending: Do loan-loss provisioning practices matter?," Faculty of Management Working Paper Series 22017, University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management.
    5. Aristei, David & Gallo, Manuela, 2019. "Loan loss provisioning by Italian banks: Managerial discretion, relationship banking, functional distance and bank risk," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 238-256.
    6. Noor Hashim & Weijia Li & John O'Hanlon, 2019. "Reflections on the development of the FASB’s and IASB’s expected-loss methods of accounting for credit losses," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 682-725, September.
    7. Emrah Arbak, 2017. "Identifying the provisioning policies of Belgian banks," Working Paper Research 326, National Bank of Belgium.
    8. Guglielmo Maria Caporale & Matteo Alessi & Stefano Di Colli & Juan Sergio Lopez, 2015. "Loan Loss Provision: Some Empirical Evidence for Italian Banks," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1459, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    9. Olszak, Małgorzata & Pipień, Mateusz & Kowalska, Iwona & Roszkowska, Sylwia, 2014. "What drives heterogeneity of loan loss provisions’ procyclicality in the EU?," MPRA Paper 56834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Małgorzata Olszak & Mateusz Pipień & Iwona Kowalska & Sylwia Roszkowska, 2017. "What Drives Heterogeneity of Cyclicality of Loan-Loss Provisions in the EU?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 55-96, February.
    11. Manuela M. Dantas & Kenneth J. Merkley & Felipe B. G. Silva, 2023. "Government Guarantees and Banks’ Income Smoothing," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 63(2), pages 123-173, April.
    12. Bouvatier, Vincent & Lepetit, Laetitia, 2008. "Banks' procyclical behavior: Does provisioning matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 513-526, December.
    13. Ozili, Peterson K, 2017. "Bank Loan Loss Provisions Research: A Review," MPRA Paper 76495, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Daniel Perez & Vicente Salas-Fumas & Jesus Saurina, 2008. "Earnings and Capital Management in Alternative Loan Loss Provision Regulatory Regimes," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(3), pages 423-445.
    15. Vincent Bouvatier & Laetitia Lepetit, 2006. "Banks' procyclicality behavior: does provisioning matter?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00115622, HAL.
    16. de Haan, Leo & van Oordt, Maarten R.C., 2018. "Timing of banks’ loan loss provisioning during the crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 293-303.
    17. Ashim Kumar Kar, 2017. "Income Smoothing, Capital Management and Provisioning Behaviour of Microfinance Institutions: A Study Using Global Panel Data," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 108-126, January.
    18. Peterson K. Ozili & Thankom G. Arun, 2023. "What drives bank income smoothing? Evidence from Africa," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(3), pages 274-295, September.
    19. García Osma, Beatriz & Mora, Araceli & Porcuna-Enguix, Luis, 2019. "Prudential supervisors’ independence and income smoothing in European banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 156-176.
    20. Di Fabio, Costanza & Ramassa, Paola & Quagli, Alberto, 2021. "Income smoothing in European banks: The contrasting effects of monitoring mechanisms," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 43(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Loan loss provisioning; Earnings management; Ownership structure; Privately-held banks; Financial institutions; Banking regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jebusi:v:78:y:2015:i:c:p:92-117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-economics-and-business .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.