Hidden Numbers Make Banks Even Bigger
[Ed. Note: "Assets off the books" is called fraud at my house and you or I would be arrested--immediately. The accepted term is "shadow banking". Fraud by any other name is still fraud.]
by FLOYD NORRIS, NYTimes:
It sounds like a simple question. How big is that bank?
But it is not.
Under American accounting rules, banks that trade a lot of derivatives can keep literally trillions of dollars in assets and liabilities off their balance sheets. Since 2009, they have at least been required to make disclosures about how large those amounts are, but the disclosures leave out some things and — amazingly enough — in some cases do not seem to add up.
The international accounting rules are different. They also allow some assets to vanish, but not nearly as many. As a result, it is virtually impossible to confidently declare how a particular European bank compares in size with an American bank.
2013-03-17 05:05:38
Source: http:///2013/03/hidden-numbers-make-banks-even-bigger/
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