http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Crisis-Panel-to-Probe-nytimes-2931583475.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=8&asset=&ccode=
These banking practices are world wide and are still ongoing. Why you ask? Because the banks have infiltrated world governments to such an extent that they now actually make policy.
It’s an open secret on Wall Street that many big banks routinely — and legally — fudge their quarterly books.
But now Washington is taking a hard look at a range of maneuvers that help banks dress up their financial statements, and raising some uncomfortable questions about banks’ bookkeeping.
The techniques in question, which are normally relegated to the shadows of finance, are expected to be thrust into a public spotlight on Wednesday by the federal committee that is investigating the causes of the financial crisis. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is expected to focus most sharply on the way banks slim down their balance sheets before reporting their results and on loans they receive from entities like special-purpose vehicles and hedge funds, which are allowed to operate with little public disclosure.
What is perhaps surprising is that many of the practices that enabled investment banks like Lehman Brothers to mask their deteriorating finances during the crisis are still wide open — and still being employed by other banks.
Before it collapsed, Lehman crossed the line with a stratagem that enabled it to hide $50 billion, according to a report on the bankruptcy released earlier this year by a court-appointed examiner.
The big question is the extent to which other major banks used, and still use, creative financing techniques, and whether they, like Lehman, broke any rules.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining the borrowing practices of nearly two dozen financial companies. It is unclear if the S.E.C. will turn up any wrongdoing.
But industry analysts say that, even now, many financial companies routinely obscure their assets and risks in their quarterly financial statements through a variety of practices.
