Relevance of Fair Value Disclosures in Spanish Credit Institutions

Abstract

Spanish quoted credit institutions have applied IFRS for their consolidated financial statements since 2005. IFRS implied the implementation of the fair value measurement model for a greater number of financial instruments than previously, as well as the disclosure of the difference between fair value and book value for those financial instruments not measured at fair value on the balance sheet. In line with the value relevance literature, and through the application of an Ohlson model, we have analyzed whether fair value disclosures contribute to explaining the difference between the equity book value and the equity market value of the sample entities. We have modeled several variables related to the possible goodwill of the entities in order to increase the model’s explanatory power. Our paper is the first to focus exclusively on Spanish quoted credit institutions as well as to use an ample timeframe which includes pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods (2004 to 2019). The results show that, generally speaking (and in contrast to previous studies focused on other regions), fair value disclosures within the sample entities are not relevant for investors. There are several possible explanations for these results which are related to the specific characteristics of Spanish credit institutions and to the time period utilized for the sample. Conversely, entity size was found to have a statistically significant impact on the value-relevance of the goodwill explanatory factors.