The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on Audit Fees - An Applied Study on Banks Listed on The Damascus Securities Exchange
Keywords:
Audit Fees, Audit Committees, Audit Committee Characteristics.Abstract
The study examined the impact of audit committee characteristics on audit fees in banks listed on the Damascus Securities Exchange during the period 2016–2023. It focused on four main characteristics of audit committees: committee independence, committee size, the proportion of members with financial and accounting expertise, and the number of meetings, while incorporating a set of control variables.
To achieve the research objectives and test its hypotheses, a multiple linear regression model was applied using the SPSS statistical software, where audit fees were measured through their natural logarithm.
The study found that both audit committee size and auditor size have a positive and significant effect on audit fees, whereas neither the number of meetings nor members’ financial and accounting expertise showed a significant effect. Conversely, the company’s growth rate and risk were found to have a significant negative relationship with audit fees, while client firm size was close to the significance level.
The study recommends that banks form audit committees of an appropriate size to ensure diversity of perspectives and effective oversight without leading to unnecessary increases in fees.
