Minnis, Sutherland, and Vetter (MSV) documents a sharp decline in lenders’ collection of attested financial statements (including unqualified audits, reviews, and compilations) over the period 2002 to 2017. They attribute this change to lenders adopting new technology and new non-bank lenders entering the lending market. In this discussion, I explore several dimensions of their findings. First, I provide a framework for usefulness of financial statement information in debt contracting. Using this framework, I consider how financial statements may be useful for the small and medium loans the authors study, and how this role could be disrupted. Second, I consider how financial technology (FinTech) has disrupted traditional lending and potentially changed the role of financial statements. Finally, I consider the implications for this change on the accounting profession.

中文翻译：

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财务报表与金融科技：Minnis、Sutherland 和 Vetter 的讨论


Minnis， Sutherland， and Vetter （MSV） 记录了 2002 年至 2017 年期间贷款人收集的经验证的财务报表（包括无保留意见的审计、审查和汇编）急剧下降。他们将这种变化归因于贷款人采用新技术和新的非银行贷款人进入贷款市场。在本次讨论中，我探讨了他们发现的几个维度。首先，我提供了一个框架，说明财务报表信息在债务合同中的有用性。使用这个框架，我考虑了财务报表如何对作者研究的中小额贷款有用，以及这种作用如何被打破。其次，我考虑了金融科技 （FinTech） 如何颠覆了传统贷款，并可能改变了财务报表的作用。最后，我考虑了这一变化对会计行业的影响。