John At The Center

At issue is an accounting standard known as fair value, or mark to market, in which companies disclose how much an asset could fetch on the open market. With the values of assets plummeting, banks were suddenly stuck with paper losses on assets they could no longer sell. With some critics saying the provision was forcing banks to take large write-downs, the SEC and FASB issued guidance in late September that companies could use their own internal models for assigning a value to assets — in essence, a nod to the principles-based international rules.

But the IASB bowed to demands to let the firms backdate the accounting shift to the beginning of July — something not permitted under U.S. rules.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/26/AR2008122601715.html?hpid=topnews