About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Fed’s Bernanke Champions Mark to Market But Says Illiquid Securities Issue Needs Resolution

Subscribe to our newsletter

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has added his voice to the debate about mark to market accounting rules this week. Bernanke is in favour of the controversial accounting rules, which require companies to write down assets every quarter to reflect market value, but cautions that regulators urgently need to deal with the issues surrounding the valuation of illiquid assets.

The Fed chairman believes the rules are good in principle but raised some of his concerns with the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week: “I don’t see a suspension of the whole system as being constructive, because there is a great deal of information in valuing many of these assets. Accounting authorities have a great deal of work to do to try to figure out how to deal with some of these assets, which are not traded in liquid markets.”

Assets that aren’t readily traded due to illiquid markets cause problems for mark to market valuations because there aren’t enough prices available to determine the real value of assets.

Earlier this month, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) said that it would be revisiting mark to market accounting standards, the American Bankers Association (ABA) has spoken up about some concerns it has about the FASB approach. The association feels that issues underlying the controversial accounting rules are not being taken into account by the FASB, especially with regards to other than temporary impairment (OTTI).

The FASB has launched new projects aimed at improving the measurement and disclosure of fair value estimates in response to calls for more disclosure, as well as recommendations made by the Securities and Exchange Commission in its mark to market accounting study, released last year. However, despite its welcoming of the projects to review and reconcile the process for estimating mark to market values in illiquid markets, the ABA is worried that more should be done.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Unlocking value: Harnessing modern data platforms for data integration, advanced investment analytics, visualisation and reporting

4 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Modern data platforms are bringing efficiencies, scalability and powerful new capabilities to institutions and their data pipelines. They are enabling the use of new automation and analytical technologies that are also helping firms to derive more value from their data and...

BLOG

From Pilot to Production: Navigating GenAI’s Transition in Financial Markets

The financial markets sector is accelerating its engagement with generative AI (GenAI), yet moving from proof of concept (POC) to production remains a complex challenge. Key questions continue to dominate industry conversations: What use cases are mature enough for deployment? How can firms embed the necessary controls to manage reputational and regulatory risk? What organisational...

EVENT

TradingTech Summit London

Now in its 14th year the TradingTech Summit London brings together the European trading technology capital markets industry and examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...