FASB and mark to market: A lack of joined-up thinking

With the authorities throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the markets, they need to make sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

The latest US Treasury announcement on its Public Private Investment programme (PPIP) came as a welcome relief to a market weary of ineffectual and expensive intervention. This seems to be a programme that could actually work, particularly for the ABS market. The problem of establishing a price at which holders of legacy loans will sell remains, but for securities that have already been marked to market bids under the PPIP scheme could be attractive.

There is, however, just one problem.

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