Within the U.K.'s proactive financial-reporting-enforcement regime, we examine the effect of increased regulatory scrutiny on equity values. We find that a fourfold increase in the likelihood of regulator-initiated reviews of financial reports reduces equity values by 1.3% on average. Reductions...

This paper addresses regulatory concerns that large shareholders of credit rating agencies may influence the rating process. Unlike S&P which is a privately held division of McGraw Hill, Moody's is a public company listed on the NYSE. Over the period 2001 to 2010, Moody's had two shareholders,...

We provide an overview of shareholder litigation against auditors since the PSLRA. The number of lawsuits per year has declined, dismissals have increased, and settlements in recent years have declined. Our study asks why. Because we find that the likelihood an auditor is sued following a...