WASHINGTON – CUNA took its appeal over market value accounting to the White House last week, asking President Obama to form a task force to review whether current accounting rules are exacerbating the current financial crisis and whether the rules should be amended.
The move comes as dozens of credit unions, especially corporate credit unions, are being forced to recognize the diminution of the market value of their holdings on their balance sheets, pushing some of them to the brink.
The credit union lobby, including CUNA, NAFCU and various corporate credit unions have asked accounting rulemakers, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to consider amending market value accounting rules in light of the spreading financial crisis but those requests have had little affect so far. The FASB has agreed to review the rules but the review is not expected to be finished until mid-year, at the earliest.
"As many have observed, these standards, originally intended to enhance accuracy of public financial information, are having the opposite effect in the present economic environment," said CUNA President Dan Mica in a letter to the President.
Mica asked President Obama to create a task force with representatives from the accounting profession, government policy makers and credit unions and others in the financial sector to develop a different approach to accounting rules, considering the current state of the markets.
