The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business

Korea Distribution Science Association (한국유통과학회)
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Financial Performance Reporting, IFRS Implementation, and Accounting Information: Evidence from Iraqi Banking Sector

  • HAMEEDI, Karrar Saleem (Department of Accounting, Faculty Administration and Economics, University of Kufa) ;
  • AL-FATLAWI, Qayssar Ali (Department of Accounting, Faculty Administration and Economics, University of Kufa) ;
  • ALI, Maher Naji (Department of Accounting, Faculty Administration and Economics, University of Kufa) ;
  • ALMAGTOME, Akeel Hamza (Department of Accounting, Faculty Administration and Economics, University of Kufa)
  • Received : 2020.11.30
  • Accepted : 2021.02.16
  • Published : 2021.03.30
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Abstract

This paper explores the effect of IFRS on the financial performance of Iraqi commercial banks. It also investigates the value significance of financial performance statements using the Ohlson model, which has been used for the stock value relevance test in a number of studies. Using a sample of 66 listed banks on the Iraq Stock Exchange over three years of IFRS pre-adoption (2011-2013) and three years of IFRS post-adoption (2016-2018), we find financial performance components EPS and BVS value relevant to the stock returns. The findings also indicate that the implementation of IFRS has a major positive effect on the value relevance of the BVS, while the adoption of IFRS does not have a significant impact on the value relevance of the EPS reported by Iraqi banks. Our results indicate that the market value of the bank rises dramatically with enhanced financial performance reporting. In addition, the implementation of IFRS has a major effect on the financial performance measures and the value relevance of financial reporting in the Iraqi banking sector. This paper adds to previous value relevance literature and IFRS by throwing light on the banking sector in a developing country that has recently moved from applying local accounting standards to IFRS.

Keywords

1. Introduction

Financial reporting aims to provide useful financial information about the company to the stakeholders as a whole, and since companies around the world do not follow the same principles in accounting and financial reporting, it is almost impossible to make comparisons correctly (Sovbetov 2015). Before International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were released in April 2001, corporate financial reporting in many countries was based on accepted local or regional accounting principles or standards (Almagtome, Al-Yasiri, Ali, Kadhim, & Bekheet, 2020). However, to guarantee that the qualitative features of financial reporting have been improved, IFRS has become a precondition. Accounting standards are also assumed to sustain capital market efficiency and are based on mitigating the effect of future stock market information asymmetry (Oladele et al., 2018). The transition from national capital markets to global capital markets has led to a set of globally accepted accounting standards to increase transparency and comparability of financial statements. Therefore, IFRSs are widely accepted as a set of global standards and are currently used for general reporting purposes in more than 120 countries (Byers, 2017).

The objective of adopting international accounting standards worldwide is to provide standardized, high-quality economic market data that enhances the effectiveness of the worldwide market, reducing the cost of business access to capital. There are also several views that the implementation of IFRS may be an instrument to reduce inequalities between accounting systems, while at the same time providing a high degree of transparency in financial information (Chaudhy et al., 2012). The implementation of international financial reporting standards has also drawn the attention of scholars from all over the world, and many forms of study have been carried out and the effect of the adoption of international standards has been evaluated on some related variables. In Iraq, efforts have been diligent in implementing international financial reporting standards, although delayed due to the country’s circumstances. However, as stated in its orders numbered 12/9 on 14/1/2016, the Central Bank of Iraq took the first formal step to comply with international financial reporting standards. IFRS implementation became optional from 2015 onwards, and compliance with the standards has been being compulsory from 2016 onwards. Moreover, as with the majority of the listed Iraqi companies, as of 2021, they are compliant with international financial reporting requirements. This paper aims to analyze the effect of the application of international financial reporting standards on performance metrics and the importance significance of accounting numbers.

2. Literature Review

The banking sector is one of the leading industries in almost all developed and developing countries in today’s diverse global economy. The stock exchange directs financial capital to the attainment of the goals of the economy (Nguyen, Tsai, Kumar, & Hu, 2020). This leads to the promotion of the public budget and to the achievement of state sustainable development plans (Almagtome, Khaghaany, & Önce, 2020). Investors consider the financial success of the banking sector to be the best investment measure to improve their investments and profits. More attention has been paid to the implementation of IFRS in recent years, as several papers have shown that the implementation of IFRS will increase the comparability and consistency of financial statements (Mande 2014). IASBs are a set of universal accounting standards intended to improve the quality of information and standardize accounting information worldwide. Adopting these standards offers investors with more credible characteristics, as analysts and investors can readily understand IFRS (Gatsios et al., 2016). The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB)’s primary goal is to increase the distribution of corporate financial information from IFRS, which improves worldwide market efficiency.

In addition, IFRS potential advantages lead to drop-in regulation. Furthermore, estimated accounting contributes to “external comparability” as an individual, corporate financial reports become more market-friendly and synchronize market-wide information flow (Hillier, Hodgson, & Ngole, 2016). IFRS are usually regarded as high-quality because they constitute a set of finest accounting practices in the globe, are more capital-oriented than local accounting standards, and promote businesses to report accounting information that best represents financial content. Transparency is, therefore, further improved, and the adoption of IFRS is presumed to be associated with high financial performance (Chua, Cheong, & Gould, 2012). There has been a substantial rise in IFRSs as the worldwide accounting principles in this sense, and many are concerned about their universal applicability and importance to different institutional, political and economic stakeholders (Liu et al., 2011). A rise in the value of financial information is also correlated with the implementation of IFRSs (Alam, Alam, & Chavali, 2020). Besides, the adoption of these standards reduces information asymmetries between companies and investors in the stock market (Kang, 2013). The companies will be able to establish new relationships globally based on IFRS with investors, clients, vendors and other stakeholders. As an internationally recognized reporting platform, IFRS will improve the reputation and relationship of the company and provide it with a competitive edge in supporting its businesses (Hoang & Ngoc, 2019). In addition, the IFRSs aim to make the capital market easier for foreign investors and to improve investor protection as well as improve the comparison and comprehensiveness of their financial information (Chandrasekar & Kumar, 2016).

Devalle, Magarini, and Onali (2014) propose that IFRS can enhance the value relevance of information by enhancing the cross-border consistency of accounting information, the adequacy of capital markets, and a significant component of IFRSs. They often limit the ability of managers to choose accounting alternatives. The value significance of information can be defined as the ability to capture or summarize information from financial statements that affect equity values (Devalle, Magarini, and Onali, 2014; Suadiye, 2012). Some researchers claim that the value-added ideas of performance reporting clearly refer to the tests used to verify the two key features of the information in the financial statements (relative importance and reliability) (Robu, 2015). The importance of financial performance reporting can also be clearly measured if the performance data are helpful in making investment decisions. In other words, whether it has a direct impact on consumer prices, information on financial performance is considered to be value-relevant.

Researchers have also been involved in the application of IFRSs and its relationship with other financial performance indicators in many countries around the world (Martins & Paulo, 2010; Di Domenico et al., 2014; Paiva, Lourenço, & Branco, 2016; Emeni et al., 2016). In Brazil, Gatsios et al. (2016) suggest that the implementation of IASs may take longer to affect the cost of the shares of Brazilian companies and is also related to an improvement in the quality of the financial statements. Black and Nakao (2017) note that if it is focused on IFRS, the excellence in financial reporting under the Brazilian accounting principles would be higher because the IFRS seeks to limit managers’ ability to report earnings that do not reflect the economic performance of the organization. Khan et al. (2015) found that businesses that have implemented IFRS have demonstrated that the standard of transparency of financial statements is higher than that of GAAP’s Widely Accepted Accounting Principles. Kang (2013) suggests that the introduction of IFRS decreases the asymmetry of information between firms and stock market investors. In turkey, Bozcuk (2012) found that there is a positive relationship between the application of IFRSs and corporate financial performance indicators taking into account size and ownership as control variables.

The study by Uthman and Abdul-Baki (2014) shows that the implementation of IFRSs has improved the value of corporate performance disclosure in Nigeria. Using a sample of 3721 companies listed in five European stock exchanges, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris and London, Devalle, Magarini, and Onali (2014) indicate that earnings effect on share prices increased following the implementation of IFRSs in Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Júnior et al. (2015) investigate the effect of the application of IFRSs on the accounting reservation in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru for the period from 2003 to 2013 in a sample of 513 companies. They show that the adoption of IFRS has reduced the accounting reservation in some countries, and there is no impact on other countries. In the same context, Noverizal (2017) examines the impact of the reservation and the adoption of IFRSs on the value relevance of financial disclosures in Indonesia. Using a sample of 429 listed companies from 2003 to 2014, they found that the value relevance of information tends to increase after the adoption of IFRS. In South Korea, Ji (2017) indicates that the application of IFRSs is linked to the rise in the book value and quality of reported earnings.

Khaghaany, Kbelah, and Almagtome (2019) show that the sustainability reporting information voluntarily disclosed by Iraqi tourism firms is a value relevant to the stock value. They also suggest that the outputs of accounting information system can attract the investor responses. On the other hand, Ali, Hameedi, and Almagtome (2019) say that the sustainability reporting by Iraqi banks has an impact on investor behavior. As a result of the above discussions, it can be concluded that most of the findings of the previous studies have led to support the key hypothesis of the current research. It points out that the implementation of IFRSs contributes to a strengthening of both the financial performance metrics and the importance of the financial performance reporting reported in the Iraqi banks’ financial reports. This paper seeks to enhance the stakeholder’s understanding of the essence and influence of financial performance reporting on the reliability and validity of information published in the Iraqi banking sector’s financial statements. The paper also provides empirical evidence on the effect of the implementation of IFRSs in Iraq on the level of financial results and the usefulness of accounting information.

3. Model and Hypotheses

Financial performance reporting includes those disclosure elements that assess the company’s annual efficiency as well as the prospects for future firm perfor- mance. The investor’s response to the financial performance information indicates that the performance information reported in the financial statement was favorably evaluated by investors (Oh & Ki, 2020). In this context, Tabash (2019) demonstrates that the firm’s performance has a substantial effect on the magnitude of the disclosure. In addition, high-performance Islamic banks should report more details to investors with a view to reducing equity costs and increasing their market valuation. Rahman, Meah, and Chaudhory (2019) show that there is a major negative correlation between the meeting of the audit committee and the performance of the company. This study, therefore quantitatively explores whether the reporting of performance measures and the relevance of the information in the financial reports of sample banks listed on the Iraqi stock exchange improved following the adoption of IFRSs. The examination is based on the following hypotheses:

H1: IFRS implementation has a statistically significant effect on the return on equity in the Iraqi banking sector.

H2: IFRS implementation has a statistically significant effect on the return on ownership assets in the Iraqi banking sector.

H3: The accounting earnings are considered to be value relevant to the stock market price of the Iraqi banks.

H4: The book value of equity is considered to be value relevant to stock market price of the Iraqi banks.

H5: The implementation of IFRS significantly affects the value relevance of the reported earnings of Iraqi banks.

H6: The implementation of IFRS significantly affects the value relevance of the book value of equity of Iraqi banks.

Table 1 shows the definitions of the main variables examined in this study. The adoption of IFRS represents the independent variable, which is measured through a placebo test that gives the number 1 in the years of adoption of IFRS for the years before the adoption of IFRS (Fang, Maffett, & Zhang, 2015; Beuselinck et al., 2017).

Table 1: Definition of the Study Variables

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Independent variables include both the financial performance of the firm and the value of the disclosure of the financial statements. Both the return on equity (ROE) and the return on total assets (ROA) are examined in order to assess the financial performance of Iraqi banks (Major & Marques, 2009; Aubert & Grudnitski, 2011; Ferrer & Ferrer, 2011). Independent variables include both the financial performance of the firm and the value of the disclosure of the financial statements. Both the return on equity (ROE) and the return on total assets (ROA) are examined in order to assess the financial performance of Iraqi banks:

Model 1:

\(X_{\mathrm{it}}=\mathrm{B}_{0}+\mathrm{B}_{1} \mathrm{EPS}_{\mathrm{it}}+\varepsilon_{i t}\)       (1)

where Xit is the share price, while EPSit is the share profit of the i company at t year. Model 2 was used to assess the explanatory power of the book share value.

Model 2:

\(X_{i r}=B_{0}+B_{1} B V S_{i t}+\varepsilon_{i r}\)       (2)

where Xit is share market value, while BVSit is the book value of the stock. To examine both of hypothesis 1 and 2, the authors apply the following two multiple regression two methods:

Model 3:

\(\begin{aligned} X_{\mathrm{it}} &=B_{0}+B_{1} \mathrm{BVS}_{h}+B_{2} \mathrm{IFRS}_{\Delta}+B_{3}\left(\mathrm{BVS}_{4 f} * \mathrm{IFRS}_{\Delta}\right) \\ &+B_{5} \mathrm{Size}_{\mathrm{If}}+B_{6} \mathrm{Lev}_{h}+B_{7} \mathrm{Age}+\varepsilon_{i t} \end{aligned}\)       (3)

Model 4:

\(\begin{aligned} X_{i r} &=B_{0}+B_{1} \mathrm{EPS}_{i r}+B_{2} I F R S_{i t}+B_{3}\left(\mathrm{EPS}_{i t} * \operatorname{IFRS}_{i r}\right) \\ &+B_{5} \text { Size }_{h}+B_{6} \mathrm{Lev}_{\Delta t}+B_{7} \text { Age }+\varepsilon_{i r} \end{aligned}\)       (4)

where, Xit is the Stock market value, BVSit is the Book value per stock, EPSit is the Earnings per share, IFRSit is A dummy variable takes the number 1 for observations after the application of IFRS and the number 0 for observations before the application of those standards. Whereas, SIZEit represents the Bank size (proxied by total assets), Levit is the bank Leverage and AGEit measures the Age of the Bank. Under Regression Models 2 and 3, IFRS is the independent variable, the value relevance of the equity book value (Accounting Earnings Per Share) is the dependent variable, and the bank age, bank size and leverage are the control variables. According to the above Regression Models, the regression coefficient B1 represents value relevance without the effect of the adoption of IFRS, whereas the regression coefficient B3 represents the appropriate value after theㅜ adoption of IFRS. If the coefficient B3 > B1 indicates that there is an effect of the implementation of IFRS on the value relevance of the bank financial reporting.

4. Data and Methodology

The aim of the paper is to examine the reflection of the adoption of IFRS in Iraq by examining the impact of the IFRS application on the financial performance indicators. It also aims to reveal the impact of IFRS on the value relevance of the financial reporting of banks listed on the Iraqi Stock Exchange. The sample consists of all companies listed at the Iraqi stock exchange between 2011 and 2018. The data included three years before the adoption of the standards from 2011–2013 and three years after the adoption of the standards from 2016–2018 with a total of 66 year-firm observations. The financial reports of the sample banks and the Iraq Stock Exchange bulletins were used as the main source of data used for testing the hypotheses of the study.

As indicated in Table 2, the results of One-Sample K-S Test show that data or Iraqi banks are normally distributed based on the fact that the P values are greater than 0.05 for all variables.

Table 2: Results of One-Sample K-S Test

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5. Results and Discussion

Table 3 indicates the descriptive statistics of the sample variables of the Iraqi bank’s pre-adoption IFRS (2011–2013) and post-adoption IFRS (2016–2018) with total time horizon six years.

Table 3: Sample Descriptive Statistics

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The table above shows that the sample size of all variables is 66 firm-year observations, which means there are no abnormal or extreme values in the data of all variables. Table 4 indicates the matrix of Pearson correlation of the variables, which are used to examine the main Hypotheses in this study.

Table 4: Matrix of Pearson Correlation

OTGHEU_2021_v8n3_1083_t0004.png 이미지

Note: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The findings of the assessment of the correlation between the independent variable (IFRS) and the dependent variables indicate that there is a positive correlation between IFRS and all dependent variables, except the age of the firm, which is inversely correlated with the application of IFRS. The results show that the adoption IFRS have a significant positive correlation with both financial performance indicators ROA (24.6%) and ROE (55.9%).

In addition, concerning the variables used to estimate the value relevance of the financial performance information, the results show that the adoption of IFRS has a significant positive correlation with both the market value of the share and the earnings per share. The results also show that the relationship between IFRS and book value of equity is weak and insignificant. Finally, the findings indicate that there is a significant positive correlation between the adoption of IFRS and the control variables, the age of the firm, the size of the firm, the leverage ratio, but this is a weak correlation for all control variables. The hypotheses developed in this study are being examined to determine the impact of IFRS on financial performance and the value relevance of financial performance reporting information in the Iraqi banks listed in ISX. The results of these hypotheses are described below:

H1: IFRS implementation has a statistically significant effect on the return on equity in the Iraqi banking sector.

Table 5 shows the results of hypothesis 1 that examines the impact of IFRS implementation on the financial performance of the sample banks proxied by ROE. These results indicate that R-value of the sample banks is 70.6%, which is considered as a high value, while the explanatory power R2 of the total banks indicates 49.8%. These results imply that IFRS explain 49.8% of the change in the return on the total equity (ROE) in the sample banks. The table also shows that the calculated value of F is 15.157, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom df (61.4) of 2.52 at a level of 5%. The significance level of the test is very low at 0.05, which is well below the predefined error of 0.05 in the social sciences. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing. The table also shows, through regression coefficients, that IFRS positively affects the rate of return on equity, i.e., the adoption of IFRS results in a higher rate of return on equity.

Table 5: Results Summary of Hypotheses 1–4

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H2: IFRS implementation has a statistically significant effect on the return on ownership assets in the Iraqi banking sector.

The findings of hypothesis 2 that examines the impact of IFRS implementation on the financial performance of the sample banks proxied by ROA are shown in Table 5. These findings indicate that R-value of the sample banks is 39.1%, which is considered as a low value, while the explanatory power R2 of the total banks indicates 15.3%. These results imply that IFRS explain 15.3% of the change in the return on the total assets (ROA) in the sample banks. Table 5 shows that the calculated value of F is 2.760, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom df (61.4) of 2.52 at a level of 5%. The significance level of the test is very low at 0.05, which is well below the predefined error of 0.05 in the social sciences. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing. The table also shows through regression function coefficients that IFRS have not affected the return on assets. The effect is not statistically significant as the level of significance 0.296, which is much higher than 0.05. Therefore, the null hypothesis is accepted, and the alternative hypothesis is rejected. Regarding the control variables, age and leverage have not affected on the return on assets. The size of the company positively affects the rate of return on assets at the level of significance 0.018, which is smaller than 0.05.

H3: The accounting earnings are considered to be value relevant to the stock market price of the Iraqi banks.

The findings of hypothesis 3 that examines the value relevance of accounting information proxied by accounting earnings are shown in Table 5. The value of the correlation (R) between the variables is 58.2%, which is an average value of power and that R2 is 33.9%, which is the explanatory power of the model used to test this hypothesis. The results also show that the calculated value of F is 775.32, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom (61.4), which is 2.52 at a level of 5%. The level of significance of the test is 0.036, which is less than the value of error accepted in the social sciences and predetermined by 0.05. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing. The table also shows through the regression function coefficients that earnings per share positively affect the share price and that the more earnings per share increased by one degree, the share price increases by 6.413 degrees. Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative research hypothesis is accepted. These results imply that the accounting earnings reported by the Iraqi banks listed in ISX are value relevant to the market value of the bank’s share.

H4: The book value of equity is considered to be value relevant to stock market price of the Iraqi banks.

The results of hypothesis 3 that examines the value relevance of accounting information proxied by the book value of the ownership equity are shown in Table 5. The value of the correlation (R) between the variables is 38.8%, which is an average value of power and that R2 is 15.1%, which is the explanatory power of the model used to test this hypothesis. The results also show that the calculated value of F is 11.377, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom (61.1), which is 3.998 at a level of 5%. The level of significance of the test is 0.001, which is less than the value of error accepted in the social sciences and predetermined by 0.05. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing. The table also shows through the regression coefficients that the book value of ownership equity positively affects the market value of the share and that the more book value of ownership equity increases by one degree, and the share price increases by 6.413 degrees. Thus, the null hypothesis is rejected, and the alternative research hypothesis is accepted. These results imply that the book value of ownership equity reported by the Iraqi banks listed in ISX is value relevant to the market value of the bank’s share.

Hypothesis 5: The implementation of IFRS significantly affects the value relevance of the reported earnings of Iraqi banks.

Table 6 indicate the findings of hypothesis 5 that examines the impact of IFRS implementation on the value of accounting information proxied by accounting earnings per share. The value of the correlation (R) between the variables is 72.3%, which is a high value, and that R2 is 52.2%, which is the explanatory power of the model used to test this hypothesis. The results also show that the calculated value of F is 10.741, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom (59, 6), which is 2.18 at a level of 5%. The level of significance of the test is 0.000, which is less than the value of error accepted in the social sciences and predetermined by 0.05. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing.

Table 6: Results of Hypothesis 5

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The previous table indicates that the regression coefficient B3 is 1.497 (which measures the value relevance of accounting earnings per share to the market value of the share without considering the impact of IFRS implementation), and it is higher than the regression coefficient B1 of 0.896 (which measures the value relevance of accounting earnings per share to the market value of the share after considering the impact of IFRS implementation). This means that although the adoption of IFRS positively affects the value relevance of accounting earnings per share-to-share prices, this effect is not statistically significant. This is because of the significance of the regression coefficient is 0.602, which is much higher than 0.05. Thus, the null hypothesis of the study is accepted, and the alternative hypothesis is rejected. Regarding the control variables, the firm’s age and the firm’s size do not have an impact, while the leverage has a positive impact on the value relevance of accounting earnings per share.

H6: The implementation of IFRS significantly affects the value relevance of the book value of equity of Iraqi banks.

Table 7 indicates the findings of hypothesis 5 that examines the impact of IFRS implementation on the value of accounting information proxied by the book value of ownership equity. The value of the correlation (R) between the variables is 76.7%, which is a high value, and that R2 is 58.8%, which is the explanatory power of the model used to test this hypothesis. The results also show that the calculated value of F is 14.057, which is higher than the tabular value calculated according to the degrees of freedom (59.6), which is 2.18 at a level of 5%. The level of significance of the test is 0.000, which is less than the value of error accepted in the social sciences and predetermined by 0.05. This indicates the suitability of the statistical model used for testing. The previous table shows that the regression coefficient B3 is 1.497 is greater than the regression coefficient B1 of 0.896, which shows that the value relevance of the financial performance report after the IFRS implementation is greater than the value relevance before the IFRS implementation. This means that the adoption of IFRS has a positive effect on the value of the book value of the share capital at share prices, thus rejecting the null hypothesis of the study and accepting the alternative hypothesis. In terms of control variables, the age of the firm and the size of the firm do not have an impact, while the leverage has a positive impact on the value relevance of the book value of the share capital.

Table 7: Results of Hypothesis 6

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5. Conclusions

The aim of this paper is to study the impact of IFRS on the financial performance of the Iraqi banking sector using two performance measures are ROE and ROA. In addition, it explores the value relevance of financial performance components such as earnings per share, the book value of equity in a sample of Iraqi commercial banks listed on the Iraqi stock exchange – ISX. The findings show that both the EPS and the BVS are relevant to the market value of the shares. Although both results are statistically significant, the accounting earnings per share are more significant in terms of explanatory power than the book value of the ownership equity.

The results also show that the adoption of IFRS has a positive and significant effect on the rate of return on equity (ROE). This means that the adoption of IFRS leads to an increase in the rate of return on equity of the sample bank, whereas the adoption of these standards has not affected the rate of return on assets. In terms of the impact of IFRS on the value relevance of accounting information, the results show that the adoption of IFRS has a statistically positive effect on the value relevance of the book value of equity. However, the adoption of IFRS has a positive, but not statistically significant impact on the value relevance of accounting earnings per share. These results are important for those who are responsible for regulating the accounting profession in Iraq, especially with the trend towards the mandatory application of IFRS in all business sectors in Iraq in 2021. In addition, the paper seeks to highlight the role of adopting IFRS in enhancing financial performance indicators in Iraqi companies, as well as enhancing the value of the accounting information reported in the financial statements. In addition, this study provides investors with a better understanding of the financial information disclosed in the financial statements in accordance with IFRS and the reliability of this information.

The limitations of the study include a set of limitations and the most important limitation is that the current application of IFRS in Iraq is limited only to the banking sector, which represented the study population. These banks are a few in number and some of them are not publicly available during the study years, which prevents the number of sample banks from being increased. This study has a special importance as its findings reveal impact of IFRS on both performance indicators and the value relevance of accounting information. In addition, findings help investors, managers, accountants, bankers and other stakeholders to understand the nature and implications of financial performance reporting under IFRS. The authors find it appropriate to perform further studies on the local environment implications of IFRS adoption and to look at how local businesses can benefit from the advantages and benefits offered by IFRS implementation.

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