Effect of Earnings Management on Bankruptcy Predicting Model Evidence from Nigerian Banks

This study determined the effect of Earnings Management on Bankruptcy Risk in Nigerian Deposit Money Banks. The specific objectives are to examine the effect of Debt Covenant, bank Size moderates effect of Earnings Management Incentives and bank Age moderates the effect of Earnings Management Incentives on Bankruptcy Risk of listed Deposit Money Banks on Nigerian Stock Exchange. The study employed Ex Post Facto research design and data were collected via anuual reports and accounts of the sampled banks in Nigeria. The formulated hypotheses were analyzed and tested with Regression analysis with the aid of E view version 10 2019 . The result shows that debt covenant has inverse significant effect on bankruptcy risk of listed DMBs in Nigeria, implying that degree of debt covenant violations does not strongly influences bankruptcy risk among Nigeria deposit money banks. Also that firm size moderates the effect of earnings management incentives on bankruptcy risk, meaning that the behaviours of the earnings management incentives on bankruptcy risk among Nigerian DMBs significantly and largely depends on the size of the company. Another finding revealed that firm age has no significant moderating effect on the nexus between the selected earnings management incentives and bankruptcy risk of listed DMBs in Nigeria. The study thereby recommended among others that even though higher debt contracting does not necessarily result to insolvency, management should ensure proper balancing of debt and equity in order to ensure a trade off between risk and return to the shareholders. Emma I. Okoye | Ebele G. Nwobi ""Effect of Earnings Management on Bankruptcy Predicting Model: Evidence from Nigerian Banks"" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-4 | Issue-2 , February 2020, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd30187.pdf Paper Url : https://www.ijtsrd.com/management/accounting-and-finance/30187/effect-of-earnings-management-on-bankruptcy-predicting-model-evidence-from-nigerian-banks/emma-i-okoye