While sound and transparent reporting can have economic consequences, including potentially leading to procyclical behavior, it is not the role of accounting standard setters or general-purpose external reporting to try to dampen or counter such effects. Highlighting and exposing the deteriorating financial condition of a financial institution can result in investors deciding to sell their stock in the entity, in lenders refusing to lend to it, to the company trying to shed problem assets, and to regulators and the capital markets recognizing that the institution may be in danger of failing and need additional capital....

The fact that fair value measures have been difficult to determine for some illiquid instruments is not a cause of current problems, but rather a symptom of the many problems that have contributed to the global crisis, including lax and fraudulent lending, excess leverage, the creation of complex and risky investments through securitization and derivatives, the global distribution of such investments across rapidly growing unregulated and opaque markets that lack a proper infrastructure for clearing mechanisms and price discovery, faulty ratings, and the absence of appropriate risk management and valuation processes at many financial institutions. Many of the complaints about fair value also seem to arise in the context of its impact on capital adequacy. As previously noted, while the consideration of the impact of fair value accounting on bank regulatory capital is a very important issue, it is beyond the purview of the FASB.

Panel 1

• Mr. James Kroeker, Acting Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Mr. Robert Herz, Chairman, Financial Accounting Standards Board
• Mr. Kevin Bailey, Deputy Comptroller for Regulatory Policy, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

• Mr. Jeff Mahoney, General Counsel, Council of Institutional Investors
• Ms. Cindy Fornelli, Executive Director, Center for Audit Quality
• Mr. Thomas Bailey, Chairman, Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, and President and Chief Executive Officer, Brentwood Bank
• Mr. Lee Cotton, Past President, Commercial Mortgage Securitization Association
• Ms. Tanya Beder, Chairman, SBCC Group
• Mr. Robert D. McTeer, Distinguished Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis
• The Honorable William Isaac, Chairman, The Secura Group of LECG (former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp)

Standards

• IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of IFRS – Restructured standard (2008)
• IFRS 3 Business Combinations (2008)

Interpretations

• IFRIC 12 Service Concession Arrangements
• IFRIC 15 Agreements for the Construction of Real Estate
• IFRIC 16 Hedges of a Net Investment in a Foreign Operation
• IFRIC 17 Distributions of Non-cash Assets to Owners
• IFRIC 18 Transfers of Assets from Customers

Amendments

• IAS 27 Consolidated and Separate Financial Statements (2008)
• IAS 39 Amendments for Eligible Hedged Items
• IAS 39 Amendments for Reclassification of Financial Assets
• IFRS 7 Amendment – Improving Disclosures About Financial Instruments