The "Fair Value Game"A round up of recent events

There has been quite a lot of guidance issued and much attention in the area of fair value accounting ( this is also known as MTM, that's marked to market and not Mary Tyler Moore). This post provides links to this guidance and information over the last few weeks - it includes the AcSB, FASB, SEC, and IASB. A lot of reading but essential reference.

Before I get started please note that the SEC has announced a Roundtable which will cover mark to market accounting. There will be two panels

The first panel will discuss the interaction between mark-to-market accounting for financial institutions and the current economic situation. The second panel will focus on potential improvements to the current accounting model and implications of possible changes.

The Roundtable will be webcast on the SEC's site.

I would also like to congratulate Edith Orenstein, the writer of the FEI US Financial Reporting blog. I encourage you to check her posts out for the last few weeks. This post is about the SEC initiative, For example see this post. Congratulations to Edith on her birthday today!


Accounting Standards Board Canada

A staff draft proposing to provide Canadian companies with the ability to reclassify financial assets out of the held-for-trading and available-for-sale categories in a manner equivalent to that available in accordance with recent changes to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

FASB

FASB Staff Position Determining the Fair Value of a Financial Asset when the Market for that Asset is not active FAS 157-3 (October 10, 2008)

FASB/SEC Clarifications on Fair value accounting (September 30, 2008)

SEC

SEC actions During Turmoil in Credit Markets

Work on Congressionally Mandated Study on Accounting Standards

SEC Study of Mark to Market accounting - comments are due by November 13, 2008

Upcoming SEC Roundtable - see beginning of this post.

FASB/SEC clarifications - see the link under FASB

IASB

Draft Document on measuring the fair value of financial instruments in markets that are no longer active

See the updates on the Expert Advisory Panel and here

IASB staff position on the FASB/SEC clarifictions

IASB/FASB Joint advisory group announcement

IASB amendments to permit reclassification of financial instruments

Proposed improvements to financial instrument disclosures, comments due December 15, 2008

Happy reading. You might also be interested in the recent FASB exposure draft on Going Concern.