I identify issues that bank regulators need to consider if fair value accounting is used for determining bank regulatory capital and when making regulatory decisions. In financial reporting, US and international accounting standard setters have issued several disclosure and measurement and...

This paper analyzes the determinants and consequences of using a new option under IFRS to reclassify financial instruments from fair value categories to categories measured at cost or amortized cost. Many critics blamed fair value accounting as a reason or at least a catalyst of the ongoing...

European banks have substantial investments in assets that are measured without directly observable market prices (mark-tomodel). Financial disclosures of these value estimates lack standardization and are hard to compare across banks. These comparability concerns are concentrated in large...

Stephen Bell and Andrew Hindmoor compare banking systems in the U.S. and UK to those of Canada and Australia and explain why the system imploded in the former but not the latter. Canadian and Australian banks were able to make profits through traditional lending practices, unlike their...