As if last week's ruling the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), which I have renamed the Fake Accounting Standards Board, wasn't bad enough. The FASB has ruled that companies can use their own judgement in assessing what an asset's worth under fair value, which in effect means they don't have to use any objective criteria.
Now CFO.com tells us it's even worse in Marie Leone's piece Rule Change Lets Banks Reinvent the Past. The FASB now allow banks to stick impaired financial securities into a balance sheet dumping ground called "Other Comprehensive Income". That will still sit on the balance sheet but it won't go into the income statement, which means it doesn't hit the bottom line which means the banks can artificially inflate their earnings.
So let's expand that. If your company invested in entities that turned out to be dogs, you don't have to show that in your income statement. The way the standard setters are moving, things are becoming less and less transparent for investors. Is it any wonder we have a breakdown in trust?
We think very similarly…
http://www.accountingnation.com/post/Fake-Value-Accounting-and-the-Bold-Taste-of-a-Sell-Out.aspx