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Article: SEC Official Justifies Fair Value; But Commission is Working With FASB, IASB on Complex Instruments.(News)(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(International Accounting Standards Board)
- Article from:
- Money Management Executive
- Article date:
- January 26, 2009
- Author:
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Byline: John Morgan
Fair value reporting seemed anything but fair last October when prices fell off a cliff.
Money managers argued that this type of accounting, also known as mark-to-market for the way it prices assets at whatever level the market is at, was undercutting their businesses and forcing even strong companies to write down billions of dollars of assets to fire-sale prices.
After a careful and thorough review of the practice, the Securities and Exchange Commission decided not to suspend or eliminate the rules, but acknowledged that there was room for improvement in terms of assessing risk, giving a counterparty time to weigh a ...