Wenn die Zeiten zu schwierig und die Verluste zu groß werden, ändert man einfach die Buchhaltungsregeln: AIG (mTuL)

DT , Dienstag, 18.03.2008, 16:51 (vor 6530 Tagen)

1+1=3, ich sags doch. Alles andere ist unpatriotisch, und Adam Riese ist sowieso ein Terrorist, gell Gangwolf.

Ihr verdammten Schweine...

http://tinyurl.com/3xebpq

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Martin Sullivan is seeking to relax accounting rules that forced the world's biggest insurer by assets to write down $11.1 billion on debt securities in the fourth quarter.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=avimage&iid=ibnz6cefqc3k

Dieses fette Schwein. Vorstandsvorsitzender der größten amerikanischen Versicherung. Und sein einziger Gedanke ist, wie er die books cooken kann, damit alles von außen schön aussieht. Das ist das Amerika von heute. Alles Schaum. Alles heiße Luft. Verrecke, Du verrottetes Volk.

AIG should have written off closer to $900 million in the fourth quarter, based on its ``stress-test worst-case scenario'' for unrealized losses, Sullivan said in an interview today at an insurance industry conference in Dubai.

``AIG, in a position of financial strength, can hold those assets to maturity, so why have the challenge of marking them to market in an illiquid market?'' said Sullivan, 53. ``Maybe there's a short-term interpretation or amendment that can be considered in the uncharted waters we're in.''

Writedowns tied to mortgage and credit markets contributed to the biggest quarterly loss in the New York-based insurer's 89-year history, and the industrywide total has topped $38 billion since the start of 2007. Banks and securities firms have disclosed more than $195 billion of similar losses from defaults on U.S. subprime mortgages, which led to the collapse of more than 100 companies including Bear Stearns Cos.

So-called mark-to-market rules require companies to estimate a value on holdings that haven't been traded, with the change recorded as an ``unrealized'' gain or loss even though the asset wasn't sold. A better way may be to count realized losses from sales of assets, and provide worst-case estimates for the actual damage that may result from unrealized losses, Sullivan said.

``That way you're not depleting capital and forcing people to go out and raise more,'' he said.

Real Risk

Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's biggest reinsurer, on Nov. 19 said the Zurich-based company had losses of 1.2 billion francs ($1.21 billion) on derivatives as the U.S. subprime- mortgage collapse hurt debt markets.

``We must differentiate between what is mark-to-market -- an indicator, maybe a bad indicator, but an indicator of value -- and real impairment risk, which is a real loss of cash,'' Jacques Aigrain, Swiss Re's chief executive officer, said on a panel at the Dubai conference today. ``We must give a better effort at really giving both data as we observe it, and then the market can decide what to do.''

Christopher Whalen, a managing director at Institutional Risk Analytics who supports a repeal of the current mark-to- market rules, said they unfairly force firms to write down assets to less than what they're really worth.

`Causing Panic'

``What we're doing with this rule, as it stands today, is we're causing panic,'' Whalen said in a phone interview from Westchester, New York. ``You will see more CEOs making noise on this.''

Companies that expect their investments will eventually regain lost value should explain that in regulatory filings, Financial Accounting Standards Board Chairman Robert Herz said in a March 11 interview. FASB, which sets U.S. accounting standards, is ``not considering anything specific at this moment'' to change the rules requiring companies to use current market prices for assets that are difficult to value, he said.

``FASB's accounting standards, fair value included, didn't make the fat guy fat,'' Gerard Carney, a board spokesman, said today. ``They just made him step on the scale to see how much he weighs.''

`Mark-to-Management'

Mark-to-market accounting is ``most valuable'' during tough markets because it tells investors the assets are ``really under stress,'' said FASB board member Donald Young.

``The idea that one would use management's estimate rather than the market, that's mark-to-management,'' Young said in a phone interview.

A combination of the current accounting method and detailed disclosure is the ``likely best path'' to restore investor confidence, UBS AG equity strategist David Bianco said yesterday in a research note.

The Securities and Exchange Commission ``currently has no plans'' to modify the accounting rules because that's the job of the FASB, spokesman John Nester said today. He declined to comment on Sullivan's proposal.

U.S. financial companies may be permitted to tell investors they don't think values assigned to their mortgage-related assets reflect actual worth, Nester said.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in congressional testimony last month he didn't know ``how to fix'' the rules. While questioning Bernanke, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, suggested that companies be allowed to wait six months before using market prices.

(to fix heißt reparieren. Für mich heißt das eher "how to bend" the rules). Ihr verdammten Betrüger.

Und Schumer, dieser korrupte Hund, will alles am liebsten unter die Decke kehren. Damit die Welt glaubt, das verfaulende Amerika sei nach wie vor "the greatest country on earth"?

`No Complaints'

AIG advanced $3.87, or 9.7 percent, to $43.67 in 4:04 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading, its biggest gain in five years. Financial companies rose after results from Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. allayed concern that investment banks are on the verge of collapse. AIG has lost 25 percent this year.

AIG, ranked No. 1 in the world by assets (nach welcher Methode? Schätzung durch Sullivan, den fetten Gebrauchtwagenhändler??), reported a loss of $5.29 billion last month because of writedowns on credit- default swaps, contracts used to speculate on debt markets. Sullivan, whose employment was extended yesterday for a year through March 2009, had reassured investors as recently as December that any drop in the value of holdings would be ``manageable.''

``It sure seems like everyone hates mark-to-market when the market's going down,'' Young said. ``You hear no complaints when the market's going up.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Will McSheehy in Dubai at wmcsheehy@bloomberg.net; Hugh Son in New York at hson1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: March 18, 2008 16:35 EDT