Earnings management, Capital management, Loan loss provisions, IFRS, European Union, C23, G14, M41,

The timely publication of corporate financial information depends on the time taken to complete the audit. The audit report lag is a particularly critical factor in emerging and newly developed capital markets where the audited financial statements in the annual report are the only reliable source of information available to investors. This paper examines the audit report lag of companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange at the time of its transition from an emerging market to a newly developed capital market. A statistically significant association is found between audit report lag and type of auditor, audit fees, number of remarks in the audit report, the presence of extraordinary items, and an expression of uncertainty in the audit report. The results suggest that audit report lag is reduced by appointing an international audit firm or paying a premium audit fee, but is extended by aspects of potentially bad news.

His research focus is on accounting disclosure and quality, auditing, banking and corporate social responsibility. He has published work in a number of international scientific journals. He serves on the editorial boards of international journals such as Accounting and Business Research and Corporate Governance: An International Review.

We investigate the impact of organizational religiosity on the earnings quality of listed banks in the Middle East and North Africa region. We analyze Islamic banking institutions, which operate within strict religious norms and extended accountability constraints, and compare them with their conventional counterparts during 2008-2013.We find that Islamic banks are less likely to manage earnings and that they adopt more conservative accounting policies. Based on these findings, we argue that religious norms and moral accountability constraints in these organizations have a significant impact on financial reporting quality and agency costs, which has implications for both regulators and market participants.