Abstract
Purpose – Prior studies on the determinants of audit reports focus on non-financial sectors. In
contrast, the present study seeks to examine the determinants of auditors’ opinion in the banking
industry, using a sample of banks drawn from nine Asian countries over the period 1995-2004.
Design/methodology/approach – Logistic regression and a sample of 199 qualified financial
statements and 4,403 unqualified ones are used.
Findings – The results indicate that Asian banks that receive qualified opinions are in general
smaller ones, less well capitalized, less profitable and cost efficient, and appear to have excess
liquidity. More external auditing requirements and less accounting and disclosure requirements in the
banking sector, also increase the probability of receiving a qualified audit opinion.
Practical implications – Knowledge of the above mentioned characteristics could be of particular
interest to banks’ managers, investors, credit analysts and bank supervisors.
Originality/value – Despite the economic importance of the banking industry, accounting
researchers have done little to investigate the various relationships that exist between banks and
their auditors. Furthermore, most studies focus on the US market and examine the pricing of audit
services for financial institutions, the audit opinions on publicly-traded savings and loans institutions
that subsequently failed, the effectiveness of bank audit, the loss underreporting and the auditor role of
examination of banks, the impact of accounting and auditing systems on risk-shifting of safety nets in
banking. The present paper extends the literature by investigating the determinants of external
auditors’ opinion on Asian banks.