Should they change the accounting rules?

The financial turmoil has brought a lot of attention on the accounting rules and how derivatives, specifically the now famous credit default swaps , are accounted for and how they shoudl be accounted for etc. Trust the primary culprits i.e. the banks who lent money indiscriminately to home owners who couldnt afford it to now come back and say they want to have some of the rules changed to suit them - changing to mark to market will allow these guys to improve their balance sheet and get back to lending - it will be a sleight of the hand - they are looking for ways to cover their tracks - I am not against mark to market in principle, but the timing of these changes is just not right. There is another issue with mark-to-market - guidelines around how to value them and frequency of valuation will need to be drawn up and be acceptable to all.

Yes - it is necessary to be in line with international accounting standards, but the the timing is not great and any changes should not be self serving. Changes to the accounting rules around teh definition of assets and to include sophisticated new products is critical and necessary.