Earnings roundup in private and public bank holding companies

In this study, we compare the relative tendencies of public versus private firms to round up earnings in a setting of the banking industry. This industry consists of a large number of public and private bank holding companies (BHCs) that face the same regulation environment. In both the full sample and the size-matched sample, we find evidence that public BHCs show a greater tendency to round up the second digit of earnings than do private BHCs. Our study contributes to the current debate on the financial reporting quality of public versus private firms by providing evidence supporting the “opportunistic behavior” hypothesis.