Prior to the talks of the G20 at the weekend, the trustees of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) oversight body urged leaders to preserve fair value accounting rules. In a letter to summit host and outgoing US president George Bush, trustee chairman Gerrit Zalm indicated that snap decisions should not be taken regarding fair value, as the issues are “not conducive to immediate fixes”.
Zalm said that many in the industry are in support of the accounting rules and that they do provide a vital level of transparency in the market. He referred to a recent survey from the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute, which indicated that 85% of respondents believed suspending the rules would further damage confidence in the European banking system, as proof of this support.
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