How many ways are there to skin a dead cat? Several, it seems if the particular cat is Greek debt. Banks have used multiple methods to report the same events so far. This is silly. The size of the eventual losses for bondholders may still be unknown, but there should be a single system for reporting them.
Basically, the various parties have used three out of four potential methods. The first, adopted by most European banks, records trading assets at market prices (painful) and writes off 21 per cent of the value of other bonds included in the private sector exchange that is part of the second bail-out.
The second method, used by BNP Paribas, impairs exchangeable bonds by 21 per cent and attempts to reclassify assets away from the “trading book” pool. It also uses an “exceptional circumstances” clause in the accounting rules to shield all Portuguese, Irish and remaining Greek debt from being marked to market prices. A further method, used by the Royal Bank of Scotland, writes down the value of all affected Greek debt by 50 per cent – close to the market rate – creating a “cookie jar” potentially giving RBS a hefty £275m income boost later this year if the 21 per cent deal is affirmed.