Mark to Market Accounting Standards A Study by the SEC

This book focuses on the events leading up to the Congressional call for a study illustrating the need for identifying and understanding the linkages that exist between fair value accounting standards and the usefulness of information provided by financial institutions. In the months preceding passage of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, some asserted that fair value accounting, along with the accompanying guidance on measuring fair value under Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS No. 157), contributed to instability in our financial markets. According to these critics, fair value accounting did so by requiring what some believed were potentially inappropriate write-downs in the value of investments held by financial institutions, most notably due to concerns that such write-downs were the result of inactive, illiquid, or irrational markets that resulted in values that did not reflect the underlying economics of the securities. For many years, accounting standards have required measurement of financial instruments on a financial institution's balance sheet at fair value. In some cases, for example when securities are actively traded, changes in fair value are required to be recognised in the income statement. This is the specific meaning of "mark-to-market" accounting. However, in most other cases, such changes in fair value are generally reported in other comprehensive income ("OCI") or equity, and these changes do not flow through to income unless an impairment has occurred. This book consists of public domain documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.