Transparency and disclosure leading to clarity … we all look for these attributes in whatever business we’re engaged in. The accounting pronouncements are not everybody’s “go to” read, but new accounting rules for the banking industry have recently been announced, and they are very welcome. Swings in bank earnings due to “debt valuation adjustments” have in recent years distorted bank financial reporting, obscuring how well, or badly, the banks are actually operating.

Banks Get Relief from Accounting Headache, Michael Rapoport, Wall Street Journal

New Treatment to Alter Lenders’ Debt-Value Adjustments.

The banking industry’s least-favorite accounting rule is being scrapped.

Accounting rule-makers on Tuesday changes a provision that in recent years has resulted in huge–and often head-stratching–swings in bank earnings. James Dimon, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive, has call the rule “one of the more ridiculous concepts that’s ever been invented in accounting.”

Read the full article at: http://www.wsj.com/articles/rule-on-valuation-of-banks-liabilities-to-be-scrapped-1452013335

 
Photo Credit: Andrew Harrier, Bloomberg News