IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/rqfnac/v55y2020i2d10.1007_s11156-019-00855-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Did the banking sector foresee the financial crisis? Evidence from risk factor disclosures

Author

Listed:
  • Mehrzad Azmi Shabestari

    (Towson University)

  • Kevin Moffitt

    (Rutgers University)

  • Bharat Sarath

    (Rutgers University)

Abstract

Beginning in December 2005, the SEC required registrants to discuss “the most significant factors that make the company risky” under the Risk Factors item (Item 1A) in annual reports. The objective of this research is to evaluate the informativeness and timeliness of Item 1A in the setting of the banking industry during the financial crisis of 2008, and to investigate the characteristics of banks that moved fastest in communicating information through Item 1A as the crisis developed. We first document that the average number of risks disclosed by the national banks increased significantly from 2008 to 2009 and the tone of Item 1A, based on a standard dictionary (Loughran and McDonald in J Finance 66(1):35–65, 2011), also became more negative over this period. By creating a dictionary of financial crisis related words in press articles using an application of Latent Dirichlet Allocation, we show that the appearance of those words also increased from 2008 to 2009. Overall, the results support a finding that the banking industry failed to disclose business risk on a timely basis in their item 1A disclosures even though the purpose of this item is to allow firms to communicate information about all eventualities including those that may not be realized. The results also provide some information about the characteristics of the banks that had better disclosures in anticipation of crisis. Our finding suggests that the firms that disclosed earlier did a better job in pro-actively managing their operations over the financial crisis period.

Suggested Citation

  • Mehrzad Azmi Shabestari & Kevin Moffitt & Bharat Sarath, 2020. "Did the banking sector foresee the financial crisis? Evidence from risk factor disclosures," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 55(2), pages 647-669, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:rqfnac:v:55:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11156-019-00855-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11156-019-00855-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11156-019-00855-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11156-019-00855-y?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. Aebi, Vincent & Sabato, Gabriele & Schmid, Markus, 2012. "Risk management, corporate governance, and bank performance in the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3213-3226.
    2. Özgür Arslan-Ayaydin & Chris Florackis & Aydin Ozkan, 2014. "Financial flexibility, corporate investment and performance: evidence from financial crises," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 211-250, February.
    3. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger & Stulz, René M., 2011. "Bank CEO incentives and the credit crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 11-26, January.
    4. Ole-Kristian Hope & Danqi Hu & Hai Lu, 2016. "The benefits of specific risk-factor disclosures," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1005-1045, December.
    5. José Dias & Sofia Ramos, 2014. "The aftermath of the subprime crisis: a clustering analysis of world banking sector," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 293-308, February.
    6. James R. Barth & Susanne Trimbath & Glenn Yago, 2003. "Before the Enron Collapse: What Corporate CFOs Around the World Said About the Status of Accounting and Disclosure Practices," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 6(04), pages 433-440.
    7. Wong, MHF, 2000. "The Association between SFAS No. 119 derivatives disclosures and the foreign exchange risk exposure of manufacturing firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 387-417.
    8. Elizabeth Gordon & Elaine Henry & Marietta Peytcheva & Lili Sun, 2013. "Discretionary disclosure and the market reaction to restatements," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 75-110, July.
    9. Ronald D. Watson, 2008. "Subprime Mortgages, Market Impact, and Safety Nets," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 11(03), pages 465-492.
    10. Mary Barth & Wayne Landsman, 2010. "How did Financial Reporting Contribute to the Financial Crisis?," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 399-423.
    11. Fields, Thomas D. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Vincent, Linda, 2001. "Empirical research on accounting choice," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 255-307, September.
    12. S. P. Kothari & Susan Shu & Peter D. Wysocki, 2009. "Do Managers Withhold Bad News?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 241-276, March.
    13. G. Salton, 1972. "A new comparison between conventional indexing (MEDLARS) and automatic text processing (SMART)," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 23(2), pages 75-84, March.
    14. Jianping Li & Lu Wei & Cheng-Few Lee & Xiaoqian Zhu & Dengsheng Wu, 2018. "Financial statements based bank risk aggregation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 673-694, April.
    15. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    16. Jin, Justin Yiqiang & Kanagaretnam, Kiridaran & Lobo, Gerald J., 2011. "Ability of accounting and audit quality variables to predict bank failure during the financial crisis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2811-2819, November.
    17. Yang Bao & Anindya Datta, 2014. "Simultaneously Discovering and Quantifying Risk Types from Textual Risk Disclosures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(6), pages 1371-1391, June.
    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. Blum, Avinoam & Raviv, Alon, 2023. "The effects of the financial crisis and Basel III on banks’ risk disclosure: A textual analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    2. Angelos Kanas & Panagiotis D. Zervopoulos, 2022. "Federal home loan bank advances and systemic risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1525-1557, November.

    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. Özgür Arslan‐Ayaydin & James Thewissen & Wouter Torsin, 2021. "Disclosure tone management and labor unions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1-2), pages 102-147, January.
    2. Beatty, Anne & Liao, Scott, 2014. "Financial accounting in the banking industry: A review of the empirical literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 339-383.
    3. Elsayed, Mohamed & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2021. "Internal control effectiveness, textual risk disclosure, and their usefulness: U.S. evidence," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    4. James P. Ryans, 2021. "Textual classification of SEC comment letters," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 37-80, March.
    5. Ameni Tarchouna & Bilel Jarraya & Abdelfettah Bouri, 2022. "Do board characteristics and ownership structure matter for bank non-performing loans? Empirical evidence from US commercial banks," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 479-518, June.
    6. Li, He & No, Won Gyun & Wang, Tawei, 2018. "SEC's cybersecurity disclosure guidance and disclosed cybersecurity risk factors," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 40-55.
    7. Wei, Lu & Jing, Haozhe & Huang, Jie & Deng, Yuqi & Jing, Zhongbo, 2023. "Do textual risk disclosures reveal corporate risk? Evidence from U.S. fintech corporations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    8. Jaeschke, Reemda & Lopatta, Kerstin & Yi, Cheong, 2018. "Managers’ use of language in corrupt firms’ financial disclosures: Evidence from FCPA violators," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 170-192.
    9. Kathleen Weiss Hanley & Gerard Hoberg, 2019. "Dynamic Interpretation of Emerging Risks in the Financial Sector," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(12), pages 4543-4603.
    10. Lu Wei & Chen Han & Yinhong Yao, 2022. "The Bias Analysis of Oil and Gas Companies’ Credit Ratings Based on Textual Risk Disclosures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-12, March.
    11. Xiao Wu, Dong & Yao, Xiao & Luan Guo, Jian, 2021. "Is Textual Tone Informative or Inflated for Firm’s Future Value? Evidence from Chinese Listed Firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 513-525.
    12. Carlini, Federico & Cucinelli, Doriana & Previtali, Daniele & Soana, Maria Gaia, 2020. "Don't talk too bad! stock market reactions to bank corporate governance news," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    13. Kim, Hyonok & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2018. "Business risk disclosure and firm risk: Evidence from Japan," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 413-426.
    14. Trapp, Rouven & Weiß, Gregor N.F., 2016. "Derivatives usage, securitization, and the crash sensitivity of bank stocks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 183-205.
    15. Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2016. "Financial reporting language in financial statements: Does pessimism restrict the potential for managerial opportunism?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 1-17.
    16. John L. Campbell & Hye Seung “Grace” Lee & Hsin‐Min Lu & Logan B. Steele, 2020. "Express Yourself: Why Managers' Disclosure Tone Varies Across Time and What Investors Learn From It," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(2), pages 1140-1171, June.
    17. Wei, Lu & Miao, Xiyuan & Jing, Haozhe & Liu, Zhidong & Xie, Zezhong, 2023. "Bank risk aggregation based on the triple perspectives of bank managers, credit raters, and financial analysts," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    18. Rubén Chavarín, 2020. "Risk governance, banks affiliated to business groups, and foreign ownership," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 22(1), pages 1-37, March.
    19. Boubakri, Narjess & Mirzaei, Ali & Samet, Anis, 2017. "National culture and bank performance: Evidence from the recent financial crisis," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 36-56.
    20. Chen, Cathy Yi-Hsuan & Fengler, Matthias R. & Härdle, Wolfgang Karl & Liu, Yanchu, 2022. "Media-expressed tone, option characteristics, and stock return predictability," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banking industry; Financial crisis; Item 1A; Risk disclosures; Timely;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M41 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - Accounting

    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:kap:rqfnac:v:55:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s11156-019-00855-y. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://springer.com .

    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.