Feds Plan New Derivatives Guidance

Federal regulators are still finding banks and thrifts that are not properly reporting derivatives, and they plan to issue new guidance before the end of the year.The new guidance deals with compliance issues involving the accounting and reporting of derivatives under Financial Accounting Standard 133, according to Jeffrey Geer, chief accountant of the Office of Thrift Supervision. "The biggest problem is that some institutions are not recognizing that they even have derivatives," Mr. Geer told a meeting of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The guidance also makes clear that "we are seeing a lot of inappropriate netting of derivatives," he added. The regulators are also updating the bank call report with new instruments regarding buybacks of delinquent loans from Ginnie Mae pools. The banking regulators believe these loans should be reported as past due, according to Zane Blackburn, chief accountant for national banks. They are considering a line item or memo that would allow banks to indicate the number of Ginnie Mae loans that are past due, he said.