If you thought fair value was an almighty bun fight, you ain't seen nothing yet. The International Accounting Standards Board is tackling off balance sheet vehicles that have destroyed so much wealth and the Financial Accounting Standards Board plans to put out new rules for the United States on off balance sheet vehicles this month. More details here.

CFO.com reports how James Kroeker, acting chief accountant at Securities and Exchange Commission says it will eclipse fair value as a painful issue for accountants.

This is not before time and probably comes too late. Off balance sheet vehicles were one of the reasons the markets went into meltdown. Using borrowed money, investment banks, hedge funds and commercial banks made reckless bets. They created and sold exotic investment vehicles few could understand and hid those risky investments in off-balance-sheet structured investment vehicles and conduits. In effect what that did was allow trillions in assets to escape close scrutiny and delver mega profits for banks and hedge funds.

Doubtless, the banks and hedge funds will be screaming in protest as they see one of their big money spinners bought under closer supervision. There's a good chance there will even be some political campaigning. It's going to be one very dirty fight.