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The purpose of this study is to analyze the aggravating and mitigating factors considered by the Investment Dealer Association (IDA)’s (Now IIROC) hearing panels when determining penalties.

To conduct this research, Quicklaw’s database Securities Regulation Tribunal Decisions were searched for all decisions made by the IDA between January of 2003 and June of 2008. This paper analyzes the 238 cases that were found.

The findings revealed that the IDA’s hearing panels were more likely to identify mitigating rather than aggravating factors when considering the appropriate penalties to be imposed on registrants. Perhaps this was because the hearing panels were more preoccupied with identifying mitigating factors that would, in turn, lead to less severe penalties for their members. The aggravating factors identified and considered were fewer in number than the aggravating factors identified but not considered by the hearing panels when imposing penalties.

IIROC needs to take stock of this study and encourage hearing panels to seriously take into consideration the factors listed in their sanction guidelines and apply them methodologically to each case.

Despite the widespread use of self-regulatory organization (SROs) to regulate various occupations, SROs remain an understudied institution. This is the first study of its kind that looks at the aggravating and mitigating factors used by an SRO’s hearing panel in administrative hearings.

Recent US reforms aimed at strengthening audit committees and their structure grant independent audit committees the responsibility to appoint, dismiss, and compensate auditors. The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between audit committee characteristics and auditors' compensation and dismissals following the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX).

A series of linear and logistic regression models were employed in a unique sample comprising of 2,393 observations.

It was observed that stronger audit committees demand a higher level of assurance and are less likely to dismiss their auditors. Further, an increase was found in auditor independence as measured by reduced board involvement and less dismissals following an unfavorable audit opinion. Overall results suggest that increased audit committee roles and independence after SOX contribute to auditor independence and audit quality.

This research has implications for regulators, auditors, boards and academics. The paper highlights that although all audit committees had to improve as a result of SOX, the remaining variation in audit committee characteristics continue to be important to the demand for auditor and audit quality.

This study is the first to consider the association between audit committee characteristics and its extended responsibilities after SOX.

Under a gradual long-term plan of the Saudi Stock Market (TADWUAL) from 2016, Saudi Arabia decided to work with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) board to fully adopt its accounting standards. Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance and standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This study aims to assess whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market.

This study assesses whether IFRS adoption has any moderator role in the relationship between disclosure quality and firm-specific characteristics in the Saudi Stock Market. The key research hypotheses postulate that compared to IFRS status, after adoption, several independent variables influence the disclosure level. The analysis covers a local sample of 184 Saudi listed firms over the period 2016 to 2020. Using an in-depth content analysis technique, the voluntary disclosure and number of annual report pages are measured manually and year by year to capture levels and unique characteristics. The authors apply cross-sectional regression, first difference method, Pooled OLS and feasible general least square estimations. The mean of disclosure level increases from 33.03% in 2016 to 56.14% in 2020.

The results reveal that the vast majority of firm-specific characteristics were significant in pre-IFRS adoption period. First difference analysis shows a significant impact of firm size and non-executive composition on the disclosure level. The authors confirm that IFRS adoption plays a critical role in the quality of firms’ financial reports and supports to create a conducive economic environment in Saudi Arabia.

First, the implementation of IFRS adoption should impact the Saudi accounting information and disclosure quality in Saudi context markedly. Second, firm-specific characteristics align with corporate governance are the main determinants of accounting information and transparency; therefore, focusing on this angle enables regulators and policymakers to mitigate uncertainty and asymmetric information. Third, the findings of this research state that there is a negative relationship between disclosure quality and board meetings. This encourages policymakers to reconsider the number of board meetings in firms that was not as high as in the developed markets. Notwithstanding all previous implications, it is recommended that future research undertake a various quasi-experimental design such as a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of corporate governance mechanisms on IFRS 7 mandatory disclosure requirements on in Saudi Arabia context.

There is a lack of studies on this realm and such as these studies will enrich the understanding of aspects of IFRS adoption and contribute to the prior empirical literature. Importantly, the extend of this sample into other Gulf Cooperation Council countries and exhibition the difference effect can be very useful to enrich the knowledge of IFRS adoption aspects in corporate disclosure and accounting information quality.

Saudi Arabia has undergone several reforms in governance, and their standards of internal controls are changing rapidly. This has been attributed to the importance of providing guidelines, practices and regulations for listed companies. One of the major turning points of financial reporting quality in Saudi listed firms was adoption of IFRSs. This adoption deems to be necessity in ensuring the highest level of transparency and information reliability. Based on the findings of this research, the present investigations set up a platform and furnish many implications for policymakers, companies’ board of directors, financial analysts and other related authorities. The results should provide policymakers with greater insight of the relationship between disclosure quality and corporate-specific characteristics throughout the IFRS adoption periods. Thus, the results derived from this study can be effective and useful for the IFRS adoption committee in the Saudi Organization for Certified Public Accountants (SOCPA). According to the best of the authors’ knowledge and based on official secondary information sourced from the SOCPA website, there are several standards that are subject to difficulties in measurement and are modified from time to time, such as: IFRS1, IFRS8, IFRS12, IFRS16 and IFRS18.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the strategies and dynamics of the fledging accounting professional project in the context of boom, bust and reform in colonial Victoria. In doing so, the study provides evidence of the association of members of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants, Victoria (IIAV) (1886) and other auditors with banks that failed during the early 1890s Australian banking crisis, and addresses the implications for the professionalisation trajectory.

The study uses primary sources, including the surviving audited financial statements of a selection of 14 Melbourne-based failed banks, reports of relevant company meetings and other press reports and commentaries, along with relevant secondary sources, and applies theoretical analysis informed by the literature on the sociology of the professions.

IIAV members as bank auditors are shown to have been associated with most of the bank failures examined in this study, thereby not being immune from key problems in bank auditing and accounting of the period. The study shows how the IIAV, while part of the problem, ultimately became part of a solution that was regarded within the association’s leadership as less than optimal, essentially by means of 1896 legislative reforms in Victoria, and also addresses the associated implications.

The study reveals how a deeper understanding of economic and social problems in any context may be obtainable by examining surviving financial statements and related records sourced from archives of surviving business records.

The study elucidates accounting’s professionalisation trajectory in a colonial setting during respective periods of boom, bust and reform from the 1880s until around 1896 and provides insights into the development of financial auditing practices, which is still an important topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the institutional changes accompanying the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) have standardized the audit’s role in the overall financial reporting process, thereby reducing the impact of auditor characteristics on financial reporting quality.

To test this hypothesis, the association between audit quality characteristics (auditor size and industry expertise) and measures of financial reporting quality (analyst earning forecast dispersion and accuracy) are estimated using regression analysis. Results of this analysis are compared across the pre- and post-SOX periods.

The results of the study document a significant relationship between auditor size (Big N vs non-Big N) and financial reporting quality (as proxied by analyst earnings forecast properties) during the pre-SOX period but not in the post-SOX period. Auditor industry expertise is significantly associated with financial reporting quality throughout the entire sample period. Thus, financial reporting quality continues to be dependent on the degree of specialization of an audit firm in both the pre- and post-SOX periods; however, the impact of auditor size as a surrogate for quality has diminished.

The SOX Act of 2002 represented one of the most significant changes in the regulation of audits. This paper adds to the literature by examining the Act’s effects on financial professionals’ perception of the impact of audit firm characteristics on their client’s financial reporting quality.

Examines the history of professionalism as an issue in British marketing. Investigates attempts made to establish professional attributes in British marketing and the model of professionalism adopted. Looks at limits placed on the progression of marketing with regard to professionalism. States that the ideal typical model of professionalism has never been a valid framework for marketing, in that the structural bases of the occupation are of a different order and require individual analysis.

This study aims to examine the dynamics between exchange rate and equities contextualizing the current liberal currency regime in China. This investigation also extends the analysis to explore the potential important factors influencing the interactions between these two markets. After exchange rate reforms, currency issue has emerged as a new dimension in portfolio decisions and diversification strategies in Chinese equity markets.

This research uses the dynamic conditional correlation generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity model proposed by Engle (2002) to explore the dynamic interactions between the currency and stock markets. Further, the paper uses regression analysis to explore the explanatory channels of the correlation. The sample comprises 1,265 listed companies over the period 2005-2012 with daily, weekly and monthly observations. To make analysis robust, the study also considers different exchange rates and equities belonging to different industries.

The findings suggest that exchange rate and stock price are related negatively. This conduit increases during the financial crisis period. This association is more prominent at monthly frequency than that of daily and weekly frequencies, which may refer to the noise factor in the high-frequency data. For a portfolio diversification point of view, currency may be considered an alternative diversifier against equity in China. The results also suggest a weak influence of market forces on the association between the currency and stock markets.

Much of the related past research is based on co-integration approaches and limited to the relationship between currency and equity markets without exploring the determining channels of this important connection. This study uses a more suitable approach to examine the topic and also investigates the determinants. Besides, previous studies take index data which may be poor to depict the overall market outlook. This paper proceeds with firm-level data which are more appropriate to expose the overall market outlook and investor behavior. This research also draws valuable implications.

This paper aims to consider the relevance of asset impairments when evaluating stewardship by management.

This paper considers association of earnings (including and excluding asset impairments) with contemporaneous stock returns which are used as a measure of management performance and demonstration of stewardship.

Evidence is provided of earnings including asset impairments (an accounting measure of current measure firm performance) having a higher explanatory power for contemporaneous stock returns (an objective evaluation of current period firm performance) than earnings exclusive of asset impairments. Consistent with this, recognized asset impairments are significantly associated with contemporaneous stock returns. These results occur across firm years generally, as well as for firm years exhibiting indicators of impairment and firm years recognizing asset impairments.

This paper adds to the literature providing evidence of asset impairments not being recognised on a timely basis. Additionally, challenges are identified in evaluating the relevance of accounting information for so-called growth firms.

These findings support continued recognition of asset impairments in the Statement of Profit or Loss if stewardship is accepted as an objective for financial reporting. It also suggests issues with the recognition of asset impairments that might be addressed by enhanced disclosure.

This paper is distinctive in that it considers the relevance of accounting information for evaluating stewardship, as distinct from decision-making. It also considers alternate measure of performance (earnings including and excluding asset impairments) for all firms rather than only those disclosing an alternate measure (i.e. a fair horse race)

With asset liability management (ALM), all the relevant asset and liability classes are managed in an integrated fashion. We describe an ALM model for housing associations. This model uses simulation to show the development of a housing association, usually measured as solvency and profitability, dependent on both internal (strategy) and external (economy) factors. In order to assess the associations’ risk and return profile, we generate a large number of economic scenarios. Furthermore, we will show the pitfalls of just using one or a few scenarios. Finally, we will show how this model can be used to obtain insight into the influence and effectiveness of specific instruments.

This study aims to examine how the effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of debt has changed in the period 1993–2017. Although it is known that tax avoidance has significantly increased during this period (Dyreng et al., 2017), little evidence exists on how this change alters the effect of tax avoidance on the cost of debt. This study investigates how changes in tax avoidance modify the association between tax avoidance and the cost of debt.

By using a comprehensive sample of 15,825 loan facilities issued to US public firms in the period 1993–2017, this study tests the time-series changes in the association between tax avoidance and the cost of debt.

This study finds that a positive association between tax avoidance and the cost of debt has been declined over the past 25 years. Accordingly, tax avoidance in general no longer increases the loan spread after the enactment of domestic production activities deduction. However, the risker end of tax avoidance does still increase the loan spread.

This study spotlights the time-series changes in the effect of corporate tax avoidance on the cost of debt, showing how lenders perception on corporate tax avoidance has altered in accordance with changes in corporate tax practice.