The Dodd-Frank Act expands bank managers’ reporting requirements to federal agencies, particularly relating to banks’ financial losses should common market and macroeconomic shocks occur. To comply with this regulation, bank managers have engaged in consulting arrangements (referred to as regulatory consulting). We examine the financial reporting quality implications associated with hiring external auditors for these services. We find banks with auditor-provided regulatory consulting, relative to banks without, have higher financial reporting quality as measured by loan loss provision validity. Consistent with knowledge spillover benefits accruing to financial audit teams, we find more pronounced effects in the fourth versus interim quarters and more frequent income-reducing Y9-C restatements. We also find auditor responsiveness to PCAOB inspections improves the effectiveness of regulatory consulting. Overall, our results suggest regulatory consulting improves the audits of estimates in judgmental financial statement accounts, despite regulatory concerns that these services may impair auditor independence.

We examine the relation between the gender composition of audit teams and two important audit outcomes—audit quality and audit fees. We identify gender composition across auditor ranks with novel audit-office level data for 20 large U.S. public accounting firms from 2010 to 2018. We find engagements of audit offices with more female auditors are associated with higher audit quality and lower audit fees. We find the association between gender composition and audit outcomes is strongest at the staff level, and among audit seniors in particular. The results also strengthen in offices with more supportive workplace environments. Overall, our large-scale evidence provides important insights on the role of gender composition of audit teams.