Comments on: Off blance sheet reporting irretrievably broken

By: Brian Clarke

Brian Clarke — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 14:41:10 +0000

I'm a UK Chartered Accountant and occasional auditor. I was taught long ago that, "if you don't understand it, you haven't audited it".

Enough said?

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:16:02 +0000

Francine – that has been my position for years. The banks will scream 'regulation by the back door' but they're the ones who created the situation as an attempt to get around rules they don't like.

By: Francine McKenna

Francine McKenna — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:58:11 +0000

Dennis, You are spot on. The auditors not only aren't dealign with this well, they can't. They do not have to expertise and firepower. They are catching up to executives who are trusting some analyst in the back room with a model that no one can vet.

I suggest OTC and non-marketable securities be valued just as they are – non-marketable, at zero until someone makes a market, in a sanctioned marketplace, where regulators and other counterparties besides tow self-serving banks have influence.

By: Tax Research UK / Off blance sheet reporting irretrievably broken

Tax Research UK / Off blance sheet reporting irretrievably broken — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:39:43 +0000

[...] Howlett has done a great job writing on the above [...]