Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it will be harder to evaluate a bank's credit as a result of the Financial Accounting Standards Board's recent move to ease mark-to-market accounting rules to give companies more leeway in reporting the value of their troubled securities and loans.
"There will be additional room for companies to manage the fair-value outcome affecting earnings results and capitalization," S&P said in a report released Wednesday. "Companies may arrive at varied conclusions based on their own incentives, thereby raising concerns of reliability and consistency in the accounting results."
S&P said that for now it does not expect any ratings actions as a result of the standards board's revision of fair-value accounting. But it said it will have to do "increased analysis" to determine how companies are valuing their troubled assets.
