Abstract: The present financial reports in China include both the consolidated statements and the parent company’s statements. Taking A share of non-financial firms in the period from 2004 to 2009 as samples, this paper investigates the impacts of accounting standard changes on the usefulness of credit decisions in the parent companies statements. The research results indicate that the parent company’s statements under the formal standards provide the creditor with no incremental information in addition to the consolidated statements. When the new standard is implemented, the content of incremental information in the parent company’s statements is improved significantly. Further study indicates that the effect of accounting standard changes on the usefulness of accounting information will be affected by the demand for accounting information.

Key words: changes in accounting standard; statement of parent company; debt contract; content of incremental information