FSA holds crisis meetings on ‘fair value’
FSA has been holding round table meetings with banks and leading auditors to discuss ‘fair value’ difference
The Financial Services
Authority has held ‘round table’ meetings with banks and leading auditors to
discuss fair value accounting as part of its analysis of valuation techniques in
the current market turmoil.
The FSA has not changed its rules, but officials have warned banks to take
extra care on their regulatory valuations, the Financial Times
reports.
Regulators will require banks to adjust their accounting to more closely
reflect actual liquidity, which in today’s markets could involve booking assets
at potentially sharp discounts to the current price, if that value is unlikely
to be realised on the sale of the asset.
‘The FSA made the point that they are concerned about prudential valuation,’
one person present at the meetings told FT. ‘They recognise that in normal
markets both values might be the same but when liquidity dries up, they might
well diverge.’
Further reading:
Fair value shockwaves far from over
Financial regulation at the heart of the sub-prime
storm
Read
story in the Financial Times