Fair value accounting: breaking a butterfly upon a wheel?

Recent proposals to require all financial instruments to be measured at fair value are raising some pretty basic issues about bank accounting. The author, who headed up the UK end of the project to produce the new rules, argues whether, as bankers might suggest, they are overkill or whether they are a reasonable response to a serious problem. He argues that accounting rules around the world are moving steadily away from historical cost accounting and towards fair value accounting. The banks argue that their figures would become more volatile. The standard‐setters argue that, if reporting more realistically shows volatility, then so be it. But the proposals are the most comprehensive examination of the problem and he commends its study.