This study examines whether knowledge about a borrower’s internal audit function affects commercial lending decisions. An experiment was conducted with 61 lending officers, who provided risk assessments and lending probabilities for a hypothetical line of credit applicant. The independent variable, the company’s internal audit function, was manipulated using three levels—no internal auditing, weak internal auditing, and strong internal auditing. Results show that lenders’ risk assessments are not influenced by a borrower’s internal audit function, but the likelihood of approving a line of credit is positively impacted. More specifically, for a borrower whose financial statements are compiled by a regional CPA firm, the existence of an internal audit function enhances the probability of line of credit approvals, although the strength of the internal audit function does not appear to have an impact. An implication for companies that want to enhance their borrowing prospects is that it may be worthwhile to invest in some form of internal auditing, but they do not have to be very concerned about its strength for purposes of obtaining lines of credit from banks.

这项研究检查了有关借款人内部审计职能的知识是否会影响商业贷款决策。对61名贷款人员进行了实验，他们为假设的信贷申请人提供了风险评估和贷款概率。自变量，即公司的内部审计职能，使用了三个层次进行操纵：无内部审计，内部审计薄弱和内部审计强大。结果表明，贷方的风险评估不受借款人内部审计职能的影响，但是批准授信额度的可能性受到积极影响。更具体地说，对于财务报表由地区CPA公司编制的借款人而言，内部审计功能的存在会增加授信额度批准的可能性，尽管内部审计职能的实力似乎没有影响。对于想要提高借贷前景的公司而言，这意味着可能有必要进行某种形式的内部审计投资，但他们不必为了从银行获得信贷额度而非常担心其实力。