The black art of FVA: Banks spark double-counting fears

Dealers broadly agree that funding costs and benefits should be priced into uncollateralised trades, and some banks have started recognising this in their financial statements. But there is no standard practice, and there are fears of double-counting. By Matt Cameron

Accountants are often dismissed as bean counters – fussy types that miss the big picture because of an obsession with arithmetic. It’s a stereotype that evaporates at the wilder frontiers of the discipline, where bank accounting departments are struggling to work out how, and whether, to recognise the funding valuation adjustment (FVA) trading desks argue is a key component of derivatives prices.

With no rules to guide them and no disclosures required, some banks are stitching together FVA