数字金融与商业银行审计费用

Digital Finance and Audit Fees of Commercial Banks

以2011—2021年中国商业银行为研究对象,探究数字金融对审计费用的影响机理与传导效应。研究发现:数字金融发展初期会增加商业银行的审计费用,当数字金融发展到一定水平后,金融科技增强带来的审计费用下降效应会超过因审计投入和审计风险提升的审计费用上升效应,进而降低商业银行的审计费用,说明数字金融与审计费用之间呈先扬后抑的倒U形关系。机制检验发现,数字金融主要通过作用于代理冲突和信息不对称导致审计风险与成本变动,最终影响审计费用。异质性分析显示,审计主体来自国内四大审计事务所时,数字金融对审计费用的非线性作用增强;审计客体是上市银行与资本充足率较高的商业银行时,数字技术能更有效地对审计费用产生非线性效应;商业银行在市场化程度和法律水平较高、数字金融监管较严的地区时,数字金融与审计费用的倒U形关系更显著。研究结论从审计费用角度丰富了数字金融经济后果研究,为商业银行实施数字化转型战略、注册会计师审计收费决策提供参考。

Taking Chinese commercial banks from 2011 to 2021 as the research object,this paper explores the impact mechanism and transmission effect of digital finance on audit fees.Research finds that the audit fees of commercial banks will be increased in the initial stage of the development of digital finance.When digital finance reaches a certain level,the decline effect of audit fees caused by the enhancement of financial technology will exceed the increase of audit fees due to the increase of audit investment and audit risk,thereby reducing audit fees of commercial banks.This shows that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between digital finance and audit fees.Mechanism testing indicates that digital finance mainly acts on agency conflicts and information asymmetry to lead to changes in audit risks and costs,and finally affects audit fees.Heterogeneity analysis shows that when the audit subjects come from the four major domestic firms,the nonlinear effect of digital finance on audit fees is enhanced,and when the audit objects are listed banks and commercial banks with high capital adequacy ratio,their use of digital technology can have a more effective non-linear effect on audit fees.Therefore,when the degree of marketization and legal level of the region where commercial banks are located is higher,and the supervision of digital finance is more strict,the inverted U-shaped relationship between digital finance and audit fees is more significant.The conclusion enriches the research on the economic consequences of digital finance from the perspective of audit fees,and provides a reference for commercial banks to implement digital transformation strategies and CPA audit fee decision-making.