국제회계기준 도입 후 감사환경 변화에 대한 시장참여자의 인식과 시사점

Korea announced the IFRS adoption roadmap in 2007 and mandated all listed firms and financial companies to f ollow IFRS f rom 20 11. IFRS are k nown t o have a b road impact on m any areas o f the Korean capital market, consistent with its original purposes such as addressing the Korean Discount phenomenon via enhanced accounting transparency and restored credibility of financial reporting. Thus, the impact of IFRS adoption has long been one of major academic interests for many researchers and rigorously examined since its introduction in Korea. However, most studies have partially focused on some specific topics, often leading to inconsistent results. This study, hence, conducts a comprehensive survey on post-IFRS audit environment changes from various market participants and makes practical suggestions to achieve the initial objectives of IFRS adoption such as the improvement of the country’s accounting transparency. The survey consists of 15 questions in total; 4 questions for all five groups (i.e., firms, auditors, regulators, external information users, and academians), 6 questions for firms and auditors, and 5 questions only for auditors. The survey results show that on average, audit quality has improved to some extent, and audit fees and hours are overall in an appropriate level. The results, however, reveal significant discrepancy in perception across interested parties. With significantly increased risks, firms are suffering from generating financial information due to their limited accounting capability and also do not feel the meaningful improvement of audit quality despite greater costs arisign from both audit and non-audit services (e.g., private accountant services to assist firms’ production of financial statements). In addition, the perception is consistently observed from all the five groups that disagreements in interpretation and application of IFRS have significantly increased and, as a result, contribute to higher risks of auditing. Nevertheless, the survey results show that the formal Q&A systems run by the related authorities (e.g., Korean Accounting Standards Board, Financial Supervisory Services) are not properly functioning to address such increased uncertainty and risks in financial reporting. On the other hand, auditors are observed to have more positive perception on the post-IFRS audit environment changes; for example, strengthened internal quality control and more emphasis on research and education within accounting firms. Given the significantly increased difficulty and risk of auditing, however, the survey results imply that auditors still think current audit fees and hours are below an appropriate level and need to further increase, displaying clearly contrasting views to those of firms. In sum, the Korean firms with insufficient financial reporting capabilities seem to have a negative perception on the post-IFRS audit environment changes in that financial reporting costs have significantly increased due to the greater difficulty and risks of producing financial information despite the unclear improvement of financial reporting quality. In contrast, auditors in Korea seem to have an overall positive perception on the post-IFRS audit environment changes given the increased audit quality and accounting firms’ greater emphasis on internal research and education although audit fees are still at an insufficient level. Such opposing perceptions across interested parties, in particular between firms and auditors, indicate the objectives of IFRS adoption is still not being effectively attained as initially expected although 10 years have passed since its adoption. In that sense, we suggest some remedial measures to make IFRS better contribute to improving accounting transparency of the country. For firms, CEOs need to change their recognition on the importance of financial reporting under the IFRS system and strengthen firms’ internal accounting capability via active scouting of relevant professionals. In addition, firms should not hesitate to supplement their internal accounting capability via private accountant services, if necessary. For auditors, more investments on internal quality control, research, and education are required to effectively respond to the increased difficulty and risk of auditing under the principle-based accounting system. Auditors also need to more thoroughly manage their audit hours to attenuate clients’ distrust on auditors’ time report and ensure the credibility of audit fees. Finally, given the increased possibility of inconsistency in interpreting and applying the accounting standards, mutually-respecting culture in which different opinions of other experts are basically trusted should be nurtured in the long run, thus alleviating unnecessary conflicts between auditors. This study makes several contributions as follows. First, this paper adds to the literature on the effect of IFRS adoption in Korea. Unlike prior works with inconsistent results on fragmented issues, we conduct a survey against diverse interested parties, drawing a comprehensive picture on the post-IFRS audit environment changes. Second, our results provide meaningful policy implications to increase accounting transparency and foster market participants’ trust on the Korea capital market. The reported huge discrepancy in perception among major interested parties, in particular between firms and auditors, indicates that the positive externalities of IFRS have not fully materialized as originally expected although a decade has passed since its adoption. In line with such a policy implication, we suggest several remedial actions that are expectedly useful for regulators and policy makers to revise and implement the country’s audit system in the future for more efficient audit procedure and higher audit quality.