Internationale Cash Flow-Rechnungen aus Eigner- und Gläubigersicht

Cash flow statements have gained popularity worldwide and are nowmandatory also under German GAAP for listed companies. Based on InternationalAccounting Standard No. 7 we review their analytical value from both ashareholder’s and a creditor’s point of view. Cash flow patterns do vary fromearnings patterns. Income earned is not identical with cash received. Enron andsome other spectacular insolvency cases are just examples of this.In the first part of this working paper we present the concept of the cash flowstatement and discuss cash flow patterns of firms, cash flow ratios and theirusefulness, but also the limitations the analyst should be aware of.In the second part we analyse the relevance of cash flow statements for bankinginstitutions. Banks also have to present them in their annual accounts, butinterestingly both investment and credit analysts make little use of them. Weexplore the peculiarities of the business model of banking, its impact on cash flowas well as the information needed for analysing the strategic liquidity of a bank.Based on our findings, we do not recommend investment and credit analysts tochange their opinion on the usefulness of cash flow statements for banks.