The current economic turmoil manifested at international and national level is influencing the banking sector, situation which calls for an innovative approach to the informational value of the independent auditors report. In order to reduce the information asymmetry of the audit reports from a stakeholders perspective, competent authorities have issued a series of regulations aiming to change the structure and the content of these reports. The most important change relates to the reporting of the key audit matters, which are considered to bring many benefits to stakeholders. In this context, this research aims to identify, analyze and compare the key audit matters reported by the statutory auditors of credit institutions operating in Central and Eastern Europe. The results revealed that the reported key audit matters reflect the particularity of the industry and of the activities carried out by these institutions. Also, the research highlighted a portfolio of convergent and divergent elements in the key audit matters reporting both at the level of the analyzed territories and at audit firm level. The results of the research are useful to stakeholders of the banking industry, professional bodies and regulators from two perspectives: firstly, by generating value added to the informational value of the audit report and secondly, by building an informational symmetry of the audit report in relation to its stakeholders.
Convergent and Divergent Elements in the Reporting of Key Audit Matters at the Level of the Banking Sector from Central and Eastern Europe