تأثیر پذیرش IFRS در بازار اعتباری: شواهد از برزیل Effects of the Adoption of IFRS on the Credit Market: Evidence from Brazil

1. Introduction Accounting information plays two primary roles in credit contract relationships (Beatty, 2008). First, it helps banks and other lenders evaluate credit risk (ex ante, mitigating the problem of adverse selection). Second, it helps monitor credit risk over the life of the debt contract through financial covenants (ex post, mitigating the problem of moral risk). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of mandatory IFRS adoption in Brazil on the relevance of accounting information to credit risk assessment and on loan contract terms. Over 120 jurisdictions―including developed, emerging, and developing economies―either permit or require the use of IFRS in financial reporting. Recent studies document a number of positive consequences to the equity markets associated with the introduction of IFRS, such as increased market liquidity, reduced equity cost, increased inflow of foreign investment, improvements in analyst forecast accuracy, and reduced insider information asymmetry (Brochet, Jagolinzer, & Riedl, 2013; Byard, Li, & Yu, 2011; Daske, Hail, Leuz, & Verdi, 2008; DeFond, Hu, Hung, & Li, 2011; Li, 2010; Lima, 2011; Tan, Wang, & Welker, 2011). However, prior research has primarily focused on the usefulness of IFRS to investors, with limited research examining the usefulness of IFRS to creditors. As an example, several studies have analyzed the effect of IFRS adoption in the Brazilian capital market instead of the credit market. Considering the informational aspect, Lima, Lima, Carvalho, and Lima (2010) investigated whether underlying firm-level incentives influence firms’ compliance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) convergence practices and whether this adoption impacts firms’ cost of equity capital and market liquidity in Brazil—a setting with a poor institutional environment but high growth opportunities—using a sample of 54 companies from the São Paulo Stock Exchange. The results indicate that firm-level incentives are important drivers of compliance with IFRS convergence practices. The results suggest that firms that (a) are larger, (b) are more exposed to international markets, and (c) have greater financing needs are more likely to adopt IFRS practices by implementing material changes in their accounting policies. The economic consequence analysis shows that cost of capital does not seem to be related to any of the convergence measures used. However, there is a statistically significant relationship between all the market liquidity variables and the IASCI, indicating that companies that best meet the convergence requirements have lower trading costs and greater liquidity, and their share price is less susceptible to the influence of individual investors. Following the same results, Santos and Cavalcante (2014) state that the adoption of IFRS in Brazil contributed to an increase in the information relevance of accounting profits of publicly traded companies. In the same sense, Almeida and Rodrigues (2017) examined the effects of interactions among IFRS adoption, analyst coverage, and cross-listings in the United States on the voluntary disclosure of Brazilian public companies. They found a significant positive shift on voluntary disclosure incentives among cross-listed firms from the IFRS pre-adoption period to the post-adoption period. They also found that analyst coverage has a positive association with voluntary disclosure over the IFRS adoption process; however, the interaction between IFRS adoption and analysts affects only environmental and social disclosure positively.