Assessing the quality of goodwill impairment testing by large Malaysian firms

The new treatment for goodwill is a radical departure to the existing practice of reporting in Malaysia, with prepares having to deal with complex techniques for assessing impairment, and added disclosure requirements. Given the change, there exists the possibility of inconsistencies in disclosure quality. The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of compliance and assess the quality of disclosures made in accordance with this new standard. Using a sample of 36 of the largest Malaysian listed corporations as at 2006, we find significant levels of non-compliance and substantial variation in the quality of disclosures pertaining to impairment testing.