Posted by & filed under Accounting Principles, Advanced Accounting, All Articles, Financial Accounting, Fraud Accounting.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking public-company CFOs for better disclosures and additional information about repurchase agreements, or repos, which are the same transactions that Lehman Brothers used to make its balance sheet look healthy before the investment bank collapsed into bankruptcy. Based on company responses, the SEC could ask issuers to amend their filings or modify disclosures in future filings.

Questions:
1. Explain why this article says that Lehman’s Repo 105 transactions are destined to take a prominent place in the annals of accounting scandals.
2. Is this the first time the SEC has questioned companies about the way they apply asset-transfer accounting rules? Explain.
3. What type of ratios do these repos affect? Give an example of how this might work.

Source: Leone, M. (2010). SEC to CFOs: More Repo Disclosure CFO.com, March 31, 2010 (Retrievable at http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/14487561/1/c_14487542?f=home_todayinfinance)

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