Paper Title
Can Emotional Intelligence Moderate Loan Officers’ Judgments and Decisions?

Abstract
Changes such as greater uncertainty and instability in financial and business environments, combined with unprecedented changes in accounting standards, have contributed to the increasing complexity of the decision process of professional users, including loan officers. Since previous studies have concluded that the judgments and decisions of professional financial statement users, including loan officers, can be influenced by some factors despite the users’ level of professional sophistication, it seemed important to investigate whether variables other than those already examined in the literature influence loan officers’ decision process. The purpose of this study is to explore whether emotional intelligence (EI) is a moderating variable in loan officers’ information processing and to assess the extent to which EI moderates risk perception and credit granting decisions. This paper will help improve knowledge about the decision process of professional financial statement users, specifically loan officers, by bridging traditional decision making models used in accounting studies and the psychology literature on EI. Key words - Loan officer, decision-making, emotional intelligence