"WASHINGTON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that some proposals to temporarily suspend mark-to-market accounting rules could lead to an erosion of the market's ability to assess risks at banks.
The comments would seem to suggest that Mr. Geithner would be opposed to a suspension of those rules, although he wouldn't expressly say so, noting it would be the decision of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to do so."We pour money into banks, who can't lend it out because mark-to-market rules make them hoard it. So then the banks come back to us for more money...
De-linking mark-to-market from reserve requirements (allowing them to lend based on a more reasonable estimate of the value of their assets) doesn't preclude us from requiring the banks to provide us with mark-to-market accounting of their assets as yet another means to evaluate their health.
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