IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/rpbfmp/v19y2016i04ns0219091516500211.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reading Russian Tea Leaves: Assessing the Quality of Bank Financial Statements with the Benford Distribution

Author

Listed:
  • Denis Davydov

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Vaasa, P. O. Box 700, FI-65101 Vaasa, Finland)

  • Steve Swidler

    (Department of Finance, Auburn University, Lowder 303, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA)

Abstract

Benford’s Law, a rule concerning first digits of an array of numbers, has frequently been used to test for the reporting quality of financial statements. When applied to the recent experience for Russian banks, one conclusion is that the 2004 regime shift in accounting standards produced higher quality financial statements. Prior to 2004, the Benford evidence suggests that Russian banks tended to round revenues up, expenses down and thus overstate net income. It also appears that banks may have presented stronger balance sheets than warranted. In the second part of the analysis, the practical use of Benford’s Law to discern a looming bank failure appears limited. While there is, perhaps, some beneficial information to be drawn from testing for Benford distribution conformity, in isolation the tests for financial statement manipulation are inconclusive. Instead, Benford might be used with other early warning detection algorithms to recognize impending bank failures.

Suggested Citation

  • Denis Davydov & Steve Swidler, 2016. "Reading Russian Tea Leaves: Assessing the Quality of Bank Financial Statements with the Benford Distribution," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(04), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:rpbfmp:v:19:y:2016:i:04:n:s0219091516500211
    DOI: 10.1142/S0219091516500211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219091516500211
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S0219091516500211?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. Bernhard Rauch & Max Göttsche & Gernot Brähler & Stefan Engel, 2011. "Fact and Fiction in EU‐Governmental Economic Data," German Economic Review, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 12(3), pages 243-255, August.
    2. Mary E. Barth & Wayne R. Landsman & Mark H. Lang, 2008. "International Accounting Standards and Accounting Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 467-498, June.
    3. Holger Daske & Günther Gebhardt, 2006. "International financial reporting standards and experts’ perceptions of disclosure quality," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 42(3‐4), pages 461-498, September.
    4. Jeong-Bon Kim & Haina Shi & Jing Zhou, 2014. "International Financial Reporting Standards, institutional infrastructures, and implied cost of equity capital around the world," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 469-507, April.
    5. Anwer S. Ahmed & Michael Neel & Dechun Wang, 2013. "Does Mandatory Adoption of IFRS Improve Accounting Quality? Preliminary Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1344-1372, December.
    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. repec:zbw:bofitp:2019_025 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Kauko, Karlo, 2019. "Benford's law and Chinese banks' non-performing loans," BOFIT Discussion Papers 25/2019, Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies (BOFIT).
    3. Kauko, Karlo, 2019. "Benford’s law and Chinese banks’ non-performing loans," BOFIT Discussion Papers 25/2019, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    4. Michael Lacina & B. Brian Lee & Dong Wuk Kim, 2018. "Management of Revenue and Earnings in Korean Firms Influenced by Cognitive Reference Points," Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies (RPBFMP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(02), pages 1-36, June.

    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. Palea, Vera, 2013. "IAS/IFRS and Financial Reporting Quality: Lessons from the European Experience," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201330, University of Turin.
    2. Akisik, Orhan, 2020. "The impact of financial development, IFRS, and rule of LAW on foreign investments: A cross-country analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 815-838.
    3. Bozos, Konstantinos & Ratnaike, Yasanji C. & Alsharairi, Malek, 2014. "How has the international harmonization of financial reporting standards affected merger premiums within the European Union?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 48-60.
    4. Vincent Tawiah & Ernest Gyapong, 2023. "International financial reporting standards, domestic debt finance and institutional quality: Evidence from developing countries," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2915-2936, July.
    5. Ru Gao & Baljit K. Sidhu, 2018. "The Impact of Mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards Adoption on Investment Efficiency: Standards, Enforcement, and Reporting Incentives," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 54(3), pages 277-318, September.
    6. Anagnostopoulou, Seraina C., 2017. "Accounting Quality and Loan Pricing: The Effect of Cross-country Differences in Legal Enforcement," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 178-200.
    7. Manganaris, Panayotis & Beccalli, Elena & Dimitropoulos, Panagiotis, 2017. "Bank transparency and the crisis," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 121-137.
    8. Adhikari, Ajay & Bansal, Manish & Kumar, Ashish, 2021. "IFRS convergence and accounting quality: India a case study," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 45(C).
    9. Xiao Li & Jeffrey Ng & Walid Saffar, 2021. "Financial Reporting and Trade Credit: Evidence from Mandatory IFRS Adoption," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 96-128, March.
    10. Richard Kent & Jacqueline Birt, 2021. "IAS 7 and value relevance: the direct method versus the indirect method," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1532-1586, December.
    11. Elbakry, Ashraf E. & Nwachukwu, Jacinta C. & Abdou, Hussein A. & Elshandidy, Tamer, 2017. "Comparative evidence on the value relevance of IFRS-based accounting information in Germany and the UK," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 10-30.
    12. Nezlobin, Alexander & Sloan, Richard G. & Giedt, Jenny Zha, 2022. "Construct validity in accruals quality research," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112165, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Eliwa, Yasser & Haslam, Jim & Abraham, Santhosh, 2021. "Earnings quality and analysts’ information environment: Evidence from the EU market," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    14. Manuela M. Dantas & Kenneth J. Merkley & Felipe B. G. Silva, 2023. "Government Guarantees and Banks' Income Smoothing," Papers 2303.03661, arXiv.org.
    15. Trimble, Madeline, 2018. "A reinvestigation into accounting quality following global IFRS adoption: Evidence via earnings distributions," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 18-39.
    16. Sílvio Hiroshi Nakao & Sidney J. Gray, 2018. "The Impact of IFRS in Brazil: The Legacy of Mandatory Book‐tax Conformity," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(4), pages 482-495, December.
    17. de La Bruslerie, Hubert & Gabteni, Heger, 2014. "Voluntary disclosure of financial information by French firms: Does the introduction of IFRS matter?," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 367-380.
    18. Maigoshi, Zaharaddeen Salisu & Latif, Rohaida Abdul & Kamardin, Hasnah, 2018. "Change in value-relevance of disclosed RPT across accounting regimes: Evidence from Malaysia," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 422-433.
    19. Keryn Chalmers & Greg Clinch & Jayne M Godfrey, 2011. "Changes in value relevance of accounting information upon IFRS adoption: Evidence from Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 36(2), pages 151-173, August.
    20. Iain Clacher & Alan Duboisée Ricquebourg & Allan Hodgson, 2013. "The Value Relevance of Direct Cash Flows under International Financial Reporting Standards," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 49(3), pages 367-395, September.

    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:wsi:rpbfmp:v:19:y:2016:i:04:n:s0219091516500211. 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: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/rpbfmp/rpbfmp.shtml .

    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.