Fair value accounting's role in the recent financial crisis

Abstract

As the US and global economies begin to recover from one of the worst financial crises in history, the opportunity to analyse the causes of the most recent crisis have emerged. One argument has brought an accounting standard into the spotlight. The accounting standard that was being blamed for fuelling the financial crisis was the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, fair value measurements, which was implemented after November 15th, 2007. The recent financial crisis has sparked a major debate about the reliability and transparency of fair value accounting in times of market turmoil. This paper intends to analyse and review a number of different scholarly works pertaining to SFAS 157’s role in the most recent financial crisis.