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Mark-to-market
Mark-to-market (MTM or M2M) or fair value accounting is accounting for the "fair value" of an asset or liability based on the current market price, or the price for similar assets and liabilities, or based on another objectively assessed "fair" value. Fair value accounting has been a part of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States since the early 1990s. Failure to use it is viewed as the cause of the Orange County Bankruptcy, even though its use is considered to be one of the reasons for the Enron scandal and the eventual bankruptcy of the company, as well as the closure of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. Mark-to-market accounting can change values on the balance sheet as market conditions change. In contrast, historical cost accounting, based on the past transactions, is simpler, more stable, and easier to perform, but does not represent current market value. It summarizes past transactions instead. Mark-to-market accounting can become volati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Accounting Standards Board
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a private standard-setting body whose primary purpose is to establish and improve Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) within the United States in the public's interest. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) designated the FASB as the organization responsible for setting accounting standards for public companies in the U.S. The FASB replaced the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) Accounting Principles Board (APB) on July 1, 1973. The FASB is run by the nonprofit Financial Accounting Foundation. FASB accounting standards are accepted as authoritative by many organizations, including state Boards of Accountancy and the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). Structure The FASB is based in Norwalk, Connecticut, and is led by seven full-time Board members,Spiceland, David; Sepe, James; Nelson, Mark; & Tomassini, Lawrence (2009). ''Intermediate Accounting'' (5th Edition). McGraw-Hill/ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enron Scandal
The Enron scandal was an accounting scandal sparked by American energy company Enron, Enron Corporation filing for bankruptcy after news of widespread internal fraud became public in October 2001, which led to the dissolution of its accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, previously one of the Big Four auditors, five largest in the world. The Bankruptcy in the United States#Largest bankruptcies, largest bankruptcy reorganization in U.S. history at that time, Enron was cited as the biggest audit failure. Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth. Several years later, when Jeffrey Skilling was hired, Lay developed a staff of executives that – by the use of accounting loopholes, the misuse of mark-to-market accounting, special purpose entity, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting – were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow and other executives misl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark To Model
Mark-to-Model refers to the practice of pricing a position or portfolio at prices determined by financial models, in contrast to allowing the market to determine the price. Often the use of models is necessary where a market for the financial product is not available, such as with complex financial instruments. One shortcoming of Mark-to-Model is that it gives an artificial illusion of liquidity, and the actual price of the product depends on the accuracy of the financial models used to estimate the price. On the other hand it is argued that Asset managers and Custodians have a real problem valuing illiquid assets in their portfolios even though many of these assets are perfectly sound and the asset manager has no intention of selling them. Assets should be valued at mark to market prices as required by the Basel rules. However mark to market prices should not be used in isolation, but rather compared to model prices to test their validity. Models should be improved to take into a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fair Value
In accounting, fair value is a rational and unbiased estimate of the potential market price of a good, service, or asset. The derivation takes into account such objective factors as the costs associated with production or replacement, market conditions and matters of supply and demand. Subjective factors may also be considered such as the risk characteristics, the cost of and return on capital, and individually perceived utility. Economic understanding Market price There are two schools of thought about the relation between the market price and fair value in any form of market, but especially with regard to tradable assets: * The efficient-market hypothesis asserts that, in a well organized, reasonably transparent market, the market price is generally equal to or close to the fair value, as investors react quickly to incorporate new information about relative scarcity, utility, or potential returns in their bids; see also Rational pricing. * Behavioral finance asserts t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margin (finance)
In finance, margin is the collateral that a holder of a financial instrument has to deposit with a counterparty (most often their broker or an exchange) to cover some or all of the credit risk the holder poses for the counterparty. This risk can arise if the holder has done any of the following: * Borrowed cash from the counterparty to buy financial instruments, * Borrowed financial instruments to sell them short, * Entered into a derivative contract. The collateral for a margin account can be the cash deposited in the account or securities provided, and represents the funds available to the account holder for further share trading. On United States futures exchanges, margins were formerly called performance bonds. Most of the exchanges today use SPAN ("Standard Portfolio Analysis of Risk") methodology, which was developed by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1988, for calculating margins for options and futures. Margin account A margin account is a loan account w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interest Rate Swap
In finance, an interest rate swap (IRS) is an interest rate derivative (IRD). It involves exchange of interest rates between two parties. In particular it is a "linear" IRD and one of the most liquid, benchmark products. It has associations with forward rate agreements (FRAs), and with zero coupon swaps (ZCSs). In its December 2014 statistics release, the Bank for International Settlements reported that interest rate swaps were the largest component of the global OTC derivative market, representing 60%, with the notional amount outstanding in OTC interest rate swaps of $381 trillion, and the gross market value of $14 trillion. Interest rate swaps can be traded as an index through the FTSE MTIRS Index. Interest rate swaps General description An interest rate swap's (IRS's) effective description is a derivative contract, agreed between two counterparties, which specifies the nature of an exchange of payments benchmarked against an interest rate index. The most common IRS ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derivative (finance)
In finance, a derivative is a contract between a buyer and a seller. The derivative can take various forms, depending on the transaction, but every derivative has the following four elements: # an item (the "underlier") that can or must be bought or sold, # a future act which must occur (such as a sale or purchase of the underlier), # a price at which the future transaction must take place, and # a future date by which the act (such as a purchase or sale) must take place. A derivative's value depends on the performance of the underlier, which can be a commodity (for example, corn or oil), a financial instrument (e.g. a stock or a bond), price index, a price index, a currency, or an interest rate. Derivatives can be used to insure against price movements (Hedge (finance)#Etymology, hedging), increase exposure to price movements for speculation, or get access to otherwise hard-to-trade assets or markets. Most derivatives are price guarantees. But some are based on an event or p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association (ABA) is an American trade association for the U.S. banking industry, founded in 1875. They lobby for banks of all sizes and bank charters, including community banks, regional and money center banks, Federal savings associations, mutual savings banks, and trust companies. The average member bank has approximately $250 million in assets. ABA is the largest financial trade group in the United States. The group offers training, certification, news, research, advocacy, and community for bankers and members of the financial services in America. It publishes ''ABA Banking Journal''. History The origins of the American Bankers Association are in the Panic of 1873, when St. Louis, Missouri banker James Howenstein found himself in "a tight squeeze," with only a few hundred dollars in funds and millions of deposits to pay. Relying on help and intelligence from peer bankers in the form of frequent correspondence, Howenstein escaped his dilemma and rea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Financial Modeling
Financial modeling is the task of building an abstract representation (a model) of a real world financial situation. This is a mathematical model designed to represent (a simplified version of) the performance of a financial asset or portfolio of a business, project, or any other investment. Typically, then, financial modeling is understood to mean an exercise in either asset pricing or corporate finance, of a quantitative nature. It is about translating a set of hypotheses about the behavior of markets or agents into numerical predictions. At the same time, "financial modeling" is a general term that means different things to different users; the reference usually relates either to accounting and corporate finance applications or to quantitative finance applications. Accounting In corporate finance and the accounting profession, ''financial modeling'' typically entails financial statement forecasting; usually the preparation of detailed company-specific models used for deci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade (financial Instrument)
In finance, a trade is an exchange of a security such as stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, derivatives or any valuable financial instrument for "cash". Such a financial transaction is usually done by participants of an exchange such as a stock exchange, commodity exchange or futures exchange with a short-dated promise to pay in the currency of the country where the ' exchange' is located. The price is agreed between the buyer and seller on the execution of the trade and is guided by the supply and demand for that financial instrument. Once the trade is executed a number of steps take place until the trade is finally settled. There is a pre-defined settlement period for this to happen in each market. Trading in financial markets is key part of a countries economics, providing liquidity, enabling price discovery, and facilitating efficient capital allocation. When trading in financial markets, financial traders balance risk and potential reward to attempt to make profi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amortization (business)
In accounting, amortization is a method of obtaining the expenses incurred by an intangible asset arising from a decline in value as a result of use or the passage of time. Amortization is the acquisition cost minus the residual value of an asset, calculated in a systematic manner over an asset's useful economic life. Depreciation is a corresponding concept for tangible assets. Methodologies for allocating amortization to each accounting period are generally the same as those for depreciation. However, many intangible assets such as goodwill or certain brands may be deemed to have an indefinite useful life and are therefore not subject to amortization (although goodwill is subjected to an impairment test every year). While theoretically amortization is used to account for the decreasing value of an intangible asset over its useful life, in practice many companies will amortize what would otherwise be one-time expenses through listing them as a capital expense on the cash ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
