Malaysian financial reporting standards and audit report lag

Abstract

Based on the conceptual framework issued by the Malaysian Accounting Standards Board (MASB), the usefulness of the disclosed financial information could be enhanced by improving its timeliness, which is linked directly to the Audit Report Lag (ARL). Accordingly, many studies were conducted to examine the determinants of ARL, however, their findings show different and contradicting results. These contradictions inspired this study to investigate the determinants of ARL using a meta-analysis approach. In Malaysia, the issue of ARL is evident especially when both the Financial Reporting Foundation (FRF) and MASB decided to drive the Malaysian listed companies to full convergence with International Financial Reporting Standards starting from 1 January 2012. Thus, the Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards (MFRS) were issued. Prior studies provide evidence of an increase in ARL due to the complexity of the newly introduced standards. This has motivated this study to investigate the impact of MFRS convergence on ARL. The study used both published studies on ARL determinants, DataStream and audited annual reports published on Bursa Malaysia’s website for the years 2011, 2012 and 2013 as a source of data. The meta-analysis results show a significant association between size, leverage, board independence and audit type with ARL. In addition, one-way ANOVA results indicate that there is no significant increase in ARL after MFRS convergence by Malaysian listed companies compared to before. Furthermore, panel regression was run to test the effect of MFRS convergence on ARL. The determinants of ARL, based on the meta-analysis results, were included in the panel regression. The findings of the regression indicate that the MFRS adoption and board independence have no significant impact on ARL. However, auditor type is significantly negatively associated with ARL. The findings should be of interest to regulators because the strategy of introducing new regulations gradually to the market seems to have worked, as the change in regulation does not have a significant effect on ARL.