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Thursday, August 13, 2009

Shocker! FASB Proposal - Mark to Market Soon to Apply to All Loans?

The FASB met on 8/13/09 to consider expanding mark-to-market accounting rules to good old-fashioned traditional loans. I am NOT making this up!

Mark-to-market requires financial institutions to determine market values on their traded securities, but is currently not required for loans carried on the balance sheets of banks and credit unions. The FASB is expected to release a formal proposal on the changes in the first half of 2010.

This would be a MAJOR change in accounting rules and could force credit unions to take losses, and hinder their ability to meet capital requirements. Imagine this scenario: Interest rates move up quickly, which would in turn mean your loans have less value; who would purchase loans with a lower yield than market interest rates? You would have to sell them at a discount, yes? With mark-to-market applied, you will have to reflect the lower "value" on your books. How is market value determined? There are plenty of questions.

Sometimes, FASB proposals die on the vine, and this one may wither away too, especially with the banking industry gearing up for a dogfight. Hopefully, the credit union industry will nip at FASB's heels as well. But this one just may go through, as there has been a concerted effort to make accounting rules more international in nature - the International Accounting Standards Board has made moves towards mark-to-market for loans. Click here for a related CNBC Article.
I've been trying to come up with an alternative for the FASB acronym. So far I have (der) Fuhrer Accounting Sadistic . . . I need something for the "B" any ideas what the "B" could be?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

B bad!