Abstract
We examine the effect of internal control reports on lending officers’ assessments of a company’s creditworthiness. We suggest that an adverse internal control opinion can undermine the assurance provided by an unqualified opinion on financial statements taken as a whole and have a negative affect on lenders’ assessments. In addition, we investigate whether auditor size plays a role in determining the effect on lenders’ judgments. We gather data from 111 loan officers and find that their judgments are affected by the auditor’s report on the effectiveness of internal controls. The lenders’ assessment of the risk of extending a line of credit and the probability of extending the line of credit are negatively affected when the company receives an adverse internal control opinion as compared to an unqualified one. We do not find any evidence that the effect is lessened by the use of a Big Four 、


摘要
我們測(cè)試了內(nèi)部控制報(bào)告對(duì)貸款人員評(píng)價(jià)一家公司信譽(yù)的影響。我們認(rèn)為，一個(gè)否定的內(nèi)控審計(jì)意見會(huì)削弱企業(yè)的信用保證（該信用保證是由對(duì)整個(gè)財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)表的無保留意見帶來的），并且對(duì)貸款機(jī)構(gòu)的信用評(píng)價(jià)產(chǎn)生副面影響。另外，我們觀察審計(jì)機(jī)構(gòu)的規(guī)模大小是否對(duì)貸款機(jī)構(gòu)的判斷有影響。我們收集了111家貸款機(jī)構(gòu)并發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的判斷受內(nèi)控有效性審計(jì)報(bào)告的影響。與收到無保留意見相比，當(dāng)一家公司收到內(nèi)控審計(jì)的否定意見時(shí)，貸款機(jī)構(gòu)對(duì)擴(kuò)大信用額度的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)評(píng)價(jià)以及擴(kuò)大額度的可能性都會(huì)受到不利影響。我們沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)任何證據(jù)表明這樣一個(gè)事實(shí)：因?yàn)槭撬拇髮徲?jì)機(jī)構(gòu)出具的審計(jì)意見而弱化了這種影響。另外的分析表明：對(duì)內(nèi)控的否定意見削弱了貸款決策中資產(chǎn)負(fù)債表和利潤(rùn)表的重要性，并且削弱了貨款機(jī)構(gòu)對(duì)企業(yè)財(cái)務(wù)報(bào)告是在公共會(huì)計(jì)原則基礎(chǔ)上編制出來的