SEC to hold fair value accounting roundtable

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Securities and Exchange Commission will hold a roundtable on July 9 on "fair value accounting" methods, which are used for the hardest-to-value assets such as mortgage-backed securities.

Fair value accounting is a way of accounting for assets and liabilities based on how much they are currently worth as opposed to using historical values.

But now that the credit markets have seized up, fair value accounting has been blamed for exacerbating the credit crisis by forcing companies to use complex methods to value assets where there is little trading to identify market prices.

The SEC said on Friday it would host an open discussion on the benefits and challenges of existing fair value accounting and auditing standards.

"This roundtable will provide an excellent opportunity for investors, preparers, auditors, regulators and other interested parties to provide the commission and other observers with input into the usefulness of fair value accounting in the current marketplace," SEC Chief Accountant Conrad Hewitt said in a statement.

The agency said one panel would discuss the topic from the point-of-view of larger financial institutions and their investors. The second panel would focus on all public companies and their respective investors.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski; Editing by Braden Reddall)