연결재무제표 주감사인의 규모, 감사비율과 감사품질

The Financial Services Commission (FSC) announced a roadmap in support of Korea’s full adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in March 2007. Under the IFRS roadmap, financial reporting using IFRS is to become mandatory for all listed companies beginning in 2011. Several changes are expected as a result of the adoption of IFRS. One of the most significant changes would be using consolidated financial statements as the primary financial statements compared to using individual financial statements as the primary in the past. The consolidated financial statements factor the parent company’s subsidiaries in its aggregated accounting figures, representing how the parent company is doing as a group. One of the advantages the consolidated financial statements have over the other is that they can provide capital markets with financial information in more systematic and rational ways. Accordingly, consolidated financial statements have normally been used in accounting and audit quality related studies conducted internationally. On the other hand, similar studies in Korea were conducted mostly based on individual financial statements. The studies on audit quality for the consolidated financial statements have been very rarely conducted domestically. The objective of this study is to extend further from the previous studies on audit quality of individual financial statements by examining the relation between the audit quality of consolidated financial statements and the size of associated principal auditors. This study further investigates a recently raised issue-the relation between the audit coverage by principal auditors and the audit quality of the consolidated financial statements. The empirical analysis reveals a positive correlation between the audit quality and the size of principal auditors as measured using financial data extracted from consolidated financial statements. It also indicates that the audit quality improves as the audit coverage ratio by principal auditors increases. Additionally, the positive correlation between the audit coverage ratio by the principal auditors and related audit quality is further strengthened by the size of the principal auditors. These results signify the fact that the size of and the audit coverage ratio by principal auditors are critical factors in determining audit quality of the consolidated financial statements. This study is different from the previous studies and may make some contributions in the following respect. First, this study investigates the audit quality by using accounting data extracted from consolidated financial statements. Second, considering the fact that more than one auditor are often involved in the audit of a consolidated group of companies and division of responsibilities between the principal auditors and other auditors is commonly made in the audit opinion, the findings of this study can be used as a reference to improve the system of auditor appointment for a group of companies and enhance audit quality of consolidated financial statements.