Financial reporting standards' change and the efficiency measures of EU banks

This study aims to examine whether and how bank efficiency estimates are influenced by the shift from local GAAP to IFRS in EU. We use financial statements prepared during the transition period, and stochastic frontier analysis to obtain cost and profit efficiency estimates for a sample of 141 banks from 15 countries. Our main finding is that the bank efficiency estimates have been significantly influenced by the transition to IFRS. However, different consequences are reported for profit and cost efficiency. The paper offers some interesting conclusions on bank efficiency estimates' variation due to an important change in the accounting rules.