The blame game

Dealers have criticised fair-value accounting of illiquid assets for exacerbating the subprime crisis. A growing number of banks and industry bodies have called for a suspension of mark-to-market accounting for illiquid instruments. Are the accounting standards bodies listening? Duncan Wood investigates

The subprime crisis would make a fantastic pulp murder mystery: bodies of funds, banks and senior executives are piling up. Whodunnit? Perhaps it was the foolish borrowers, the duplicitous lenders, or the greedy securitisers. But it could have been the gullible investors, the naive rating agencies, or the complacent regulators and central banks. Amid all the finger-pointing, name-calling and intrigue, one group - the accountants - looked set to slip out of the back door unnoticed. That has