• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1083-1094
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• 2021

This paper explores the effect of IFRS on the financial performance of Iraqi commercial banks. It also investigates the value significance of financial performance statements using the Ohlson model, which has been used for the stock value relevance test in a number of studies. Using a sample of 66 listed banks on the Iraq Stock Exchange over three years of IFRS pre-adoption (2011-2013) and three years of IFRS post-adoption (2016-2018), we find financial performance components EPS and BVS value relevant to the stock returns. The findings also indicate that the implementation of IFRS has a major positive effect on the value relevance of the BVS, while the adoption of IFRS does not have a significant impact on the value relevance of the EPS reported by Iraqi banks. Our results indicate that the market value of the bank rises dramatically with enhanced financial performance reporting. In addition, the implementation of IFRS has a major effect on the financial performance measures and the value relevance of financial reporting in the Iraqi banking sector. This paper adds to previous value relevance literature and IFRS by throwing light on the banking sector in a developing country that has recently moved from applying local accounting standards to IFRS.