CFA Institute’s Centre for Financial Market Integrity said it opposes amendments to financial regulatory reform legislation to establish more federal oversight of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and seeks “to dispel the myth” accounting standards caused the financial crisis.
“Accounting standards did not create bad lending practices, cause an increase in home foreclosures, result in the creation of complex securities purchasers may not have understood,” Sandra Peters, the center’s head of financial reporting policy, said today in a statement.
The statement noted the center sent a letter Nov. 6 to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., and other committee members saying “more federal regulatory oversight” of FASB would make it “less independent than the current oversight of the FASB by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., plans to propose amending the Financial Stability Improvement Act pending in the House committee to give more federal oversight of FASB. “We are planning to offer our amendment this week. We don’t know yet what the time line is. The mark up (of the bill) starts tomorrow and runs through Friday,” Leslie Oliver, press secretary for Mr. Perlmutter, said.
An amendment proposed by Rep. Gary L. Miller, R-Calif., to create a Financial Reporting Forum was adopted as part of the Investor Protection Act the committee approved Nov. 4, according to Jessica L. Baker, press secretary and legislative assistant to Mr. Miller. The forum would be made up of the SEC, FASB, Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and financial regulators and would meet quarterly as part of an ongoing consultative process on financial reporting policy, Mr. Miller said in a statement.
