金融業設置審計委員會之必要性？兼論審計委員會之特性影響

台灣於2014年強制金融業設置審計委員會，本文旨在探討金融業自願及強制設置審計委員會之差別，以確實釐清強制或自願設置審計委員會及其特性對於金融業之影響。本研究以2007年至2016年之台灣金融業上市櫃公司為研究樣本，探討公司是否設置審計委員會與其特性與金融業公司之盈餘反應係數之關聯，其中特性包括審計委員會之規模、成員兼任公司數及開會次數等三項指標，以了解相較於自願設置，強制設置是否真的能夠產生增額之影響。實證結果顯示，在強制金融業設置審計委員會之期間內(2014年至2016年)，自願設置審計委員會之公司與盈餘反應係數在單尾檢定之下呈現顯著正相關；而其餘審計委員會之特性與盈餘反應係數，不論公司為自願或是強制設置，結果大致相同，審計委員會之規模及成員兼任公司數對於盈餘反應係數有正向之關聯性，審計委員會開會次數與審計產業專家對盈餘反應係數則有顯著負向影響。希冀透過本文之實證結果，提供主管機關及企業對於未來審計委員會政策規範及設置之參考依據。

關鍵字

金融業；審計委員會；盈餘反應係數；獨立董事

並列摘要

In 2014, the government in Taiwan mandated companies in Taiwan’s financial industry to install audit committees. This study investigated the differences between voluntary and compulsory audit committees in Taiwan’s financial industry in order to explore the special characteristics and impact of each type of audit committee. The research sample comprised data of listed companies in Taiwan’s financial industry between 2007 and 2016. The study looked to see if there were correlations between a company’s installation of an audit committee, the special characteristics of an audit committee, and the company’s earnings response coefficient. The special characteristics of an audit committee include the following three indices: the size of the audit committee, the number of memberships in different companies’ audit committees held by a member, and the frequency of meetings. The results were analyzed to determine whether compulsory audit committees would be better able than voluntary audit committees to increase earnings. In this empirical study, a one-tailed test revealed a significant positive correlation between companies with voluntary audit committees and their earnings response coefficient during the compulsory period between 2014 and 2016. The results were basically the same for the relationship between an audit committee’s special characteristics and the earnings response coefficient regardless of whether the audit committee was voluntary or compulsory. The audit committee size and the number of memberships in different companies’ audit committees held by a member were seen to have positive correlations with the earnings response coefficient. However, the frequency of meetings and auditor industry specialization were seen to have a significant negative correlation with the earnings response coefficient. The researcher hopes that the results of this empirical study will serve as informative reference material for competent authorities and companies when they are installing and formulating policies about audit committees.