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DeZoort and Taylor (2009) suggest that the reliability of nonpublic clients’ financial statements may be improved when regional CPA firms perform the client’s bookkeeping, payroll, and review services (nonindependent review, hereafter). The present research advances DeZoort and Taylor (2009) to experimentally examine whether their results may be extended to local CPA firms. One hundred and one commercial lending officers indicate that the independent review is superior to the nonindependent review, but only when regional firms provide the service (H1). Remarkably, lenders do not penalize companies’ use of independent local firms in the resulting loan decision. Lending officers also indicate that independent regional firms are more objective and provide more reliable financial reporting than independent local firms (H2a). While the focus of this study was nonindependent firms, the practical significance of this study is that accounting regulators may be interested in minimizing perceptions of quality differences between non-Big 4 firm types.