Wards Accounting Seminar Series. "What can we learn about expected credit losses from disclosure?"
Published: 12 October 2026
2 December 2026. Professor Argyro, University of Lancaster
Professor Argyro Panaretou, Lancaster University
Wednesday, 2 December 2026. 12:00-13:30
Room 253, The Wolfson Medical School building.
Abstract
The estimation of expected credit losses (ECL) under IFRS 9 is subject to measurement uncertainty and managerial judgement. To improve the usefulness of these estimates, accounting standards require entities to provide accompanying disclosures. Using a sample of IFRS banks, we examine whether disclosures help investors interpret ECL estimates and which disclosure attributes are most informative. We find that loan loss allowances are more strongly associated with future equity risk when disclosures are tailored to the bank and emphasize forward-looking information and sensitivity analysis underlying ECL estimation. These effects are more pronounced in settings characterized by greater uncertainty and weaker alternative information channels. Additional analyses further suggest that these effects reflect how investors interpret reported allowances rather than differences in the underlying quality of allowance estimates. Our study contributes to the debate on the usefulness of the ECL model and associated credit risk disclosures.
Bio
Argyro Panaretou is Professor of Accounting at Lancaster University Management School. She is a member of EFRAG’s Academic Panel and the European Accounting Association’s (EAA) Financial Reporting Standards Committee. Argyro has been a Visiting Scholar at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and an external consultant to the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation. Her research focuses on topics of high relevance to accounting standard-setters, and she is internationally recognised for her contributions to the fields of accounting for financial instruments, fair value accounting, credit risk reporting, and hedge accounting. She has published in world-leading journals, including The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies and Contemporary Accounting Research. She holds a PhD from Lancaster University and a bachelor's degree from the Athens University of Economics and Business.
For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk
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First published: 12 October 2026