Dear Ayah

Difference:

Loan loss allowance (LLA) and loan loss provisions  (LLP) are the same, they mean the same thing. Accountants call it LLA while bankers/regulators call it LLP. On the other hand, loan loss reserve (LLR) is accumulated loan loss provisions over several years, and is located in the balance sheet of lending institutions while loan loss provisions/allowance is located in the income statement of lending institutions

Effect on reported earnings: 

Excessive LLP/LLA will significantly reduce net interest income and reduce overall operating profit. Excessive LLR (after bad-debt written-off) increases the asset-side of the balance sheet of lending institutions.

Hope this helps!

Regards

Peterson

Terminology in the literature is often not clear (and not consistently applied). One is the expense item in the income statement (what I would call bad and doubtful debt expense), while provisions are a deduction for expected losses from the assets in the balance sheet (and the published balance sheet will usually report a loan amount net of provisions, which means that you need to go to the notes to the financial statements to get the actual breakdown).

In some jurisdictions (often in response to regulator requirements), there has been a practice at times of holding an additional reserve for bad and debt losses in the reserves (capital) section of the balance sheet, sometimes to cover loan losses in excess of what has been permitted to be reported as provisions by the accounting standards (I have observed this in some cases at times in Australia).

LLP and LLA are synonimous. If you are interested in reserves, here is an interesting article by Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond VA

https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/economic_review/1991/pdf/er770402.pdf

The three may give the same meaning given that allowances have also accumulated balances and are maintained in the balance sheet. The names changes based on the requirements of the local laws as well as the requirements and decrees issued by the Central Banks.

A paper implies allowance and provision are not synonymous

"Kanagaretnam, K., Lim, C. Y., & Lobo, G. J. (2013). Influence of national culture on accounting conservatism and risk-taking in the banking industry. The Accounting Review, 89(3), 1115-1149 "

ALLL is a balance increase and decrease by provision