IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jfr/afr111/v8y2019i3p219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Auditors and Relationship Banking

Author

Listed:
  • Timothy Hinkel

Abstract

This study examines whether a bank’s relationship with a borrowing firm’s external auditor through a shared client portfolio affects loan pricing. I find that when lenders’ portfolios are more concentrated in firms engaging a particular auditor, borrowers who engage that auditor enjoy lower spreads. This relation is only evident when the lender is the lead arranger who is primarily responsible for information gathering about the borrower. Tests suggest the reduction in information asymmetry facilitating these lower borrowing costs occurs via banks’ enhanced ability to interpret the audited financial statements when they have greater familiarity with the external auditor. My results are relevant to debt-seeking firms who should be mindful of their auditor’s relationship with prospective lenders, as well as regulators seeking to better understand how auditors can affect corporate financing outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Timothy Hinkel, 2019. "Auditors and Relationship Banking," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 8(3), pages 219-219, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:jfr:afr111:v:8:y:2019:i:3:p:219
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/download/15834/10041
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/afr/article/view/15834
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pittman, Jeffrey A. & Fortin, Steve, 2004. "Auditor choice and the cost of debt capital for newly public firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 113-136, February.
    2. Sattar A. Mansi & William F. Maxwell & Darius P. Miller, 2004. "Does Auditor Quality and Tenure Matter to Investors? Evidence from the Bond Market," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(4), pages 755-793, September.
    3. Jeong-Bon Kim & Byron Song & Judy Tsui, 2013. "Auditor size, tenure, and bank loan pricing," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 75-99, January.
    4. Berger, Allen N & Udell, Gregory F, 1995. "Relationship Lending and Lines of Credit in Small Firm Finance," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 68(3), pages 351-381, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Michael Minnis, 2011. "The Value of Financial Statement Verification in Debt Financing: Evidence from Private U.S. Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 457-506, May.
    2. Ari Hyytinen & Mika Pajarinen, 2007. "Is The Cost Of Debt Capital Higher For Younger Firms?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 54(1), pages 55-71, February.
    3. Gus De Franco & Yuyan Guan & Yibin Zhou & Xindong Zhu, 2024. "The Impact of Credit Market Development on Auditor Choice: Evidence from Banking Deregulation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 589-634, May.
    4. Lennox, Clive & Pittman, Jeffrey, 2010. "Auditing the auditors: Evidence on the recent reforms to the external monitoring of audit firms," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1-2), pages 84-103, February.
    5. Najah Attig & Sean Cleary & Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami, 2013. "Institutional Investment Horizons and the Cost of Equity Capital," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 42(2), pages 441-477, June.
    6. Sherry Fang Li & Sherry Fang Li, 2020. "Cost Of Debt And Auditor Choice," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 12(1), pages 35-44.
    7. Wouter Dutillieux & Donald Stokes & Marleen Willekens & Gary Monroe, 2013. "Strategic pricing by Big 4 audit firms in private client segments," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 53(4), pages 961-994, December.
    8. Monika Causholli & W. Robert Knechel, 2012. "Lending relationships, auditor quality and debt costs," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 27(6), pages 550-572, June.
    9. Bertrand, Jérémie & de Brebisson, Hélène & Burietz, Aurore, 2021. "Why choosing IFRS? Benefits of voluntary adoption by European private companies," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    10. Jaspreet Kaur & Madhu Vij & Ajay Kumar Chauhan, 2023. "Signals influencing corporate credit ratings—a systematic literature review," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 50(1), pages 91-114, March.
    11. Chi, Hsin-Yi & Weng, Tzu-Ching, 2014. "Managerial legal liability and Big 4 auditor choice," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(9), pages 1857-1869.
    12. Lim, Youngdeok, 2011. "Tax avoidance, cost of debt and shareholder activism: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 456-470, February.
    13. Ester Chen & Ilanit Gavious & Nadav Steinberg, 2019. "Dividends from unrealized earnings and default risk," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 491-535, June.
    14. Apostolos Dasilas & Nicolas Papasyriopoulos, 2015. "Corporate governance, credit ratings and the capital structure of Greek SME and large listed firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 215-244, June.
    15. Michel Magnan & Haiping Wang & Yaqi Shi(Sans nom), 2016. "Fair Value Accounting and the Cost of Debt," CIRANO Working Papers 2016s-32, CIRANO.
    16. Godlewski, Christophe J. & Turk-Ariss, Rima & Weill, Laurent, 2016. "Do the type of sukuk and choice of shari’a scholar matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 132(S), pages 63-76.
    17. Omrane Guedhami & Jeffrey A. Pittman & Walid Saffar, 2014. "Auditor Choice in Politically Connected Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 107-162, March.
    18. Jeong-Bon Kim & Mikhail Pevzner & Xiangang Xin, 2019. "Foreign institutional ownership and auditor choice: Evidence from worldwide institutional ownership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(1), pages 83-110, February.
    19. Jeong-Bon Kim & Byron Song & Judy Tsui, 2013. "Auditor size, tenure, and bank loan pricing," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 75-99, January.
    20. Abdul Halim, Zairihan & How, Janice & Verhoeven, Peter & Hassan, M. Kabir, 2019. "The value of certification in Islamic bond offerings," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 141-161.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    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:jfr:afr111:v:8:y:2019:i:3:p:219. 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: Sciedu Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    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.