may in some cases result in questionable or inappropriate practices, such as including projected income from cross - marketing activities in the valuation of financial instruments. additional guidance to address these issues is warranted. also, consideration must be given to revenue - recognition issues in a fair value regime. we must ensure that unearned revenue is not recognized up front, as it inappropriately was by certain high - tech companies not so long ago. disclosures fair values reflect point estimates and by themselves do not result in transparent financial statements. additional disclosures are necessary to bring meaning to these fair value estimates. fasb ’ s proposal takes a first step toward enhancing fair value disclosures related to the reliability of fair value estimates. i believe that additional types of disclosures should be considered to give users of financial statements a better understanding of the relative reliability of fair value estimates. these disclosures might include key drivers affecting valuations, fair - value - range estimates, and confidence levels. another important disclosure consideration relates to changes in fair value amounts. for example, changes in fair values on securities can arise from movements in interest rates, foreign - currency rates, and credit quality, as well as purchases and sales from the portfolio. for users to understand fair value estimates, i believe that they must be given adequate disclosures about what factors caused the changes in fair value. considerations for credit portfolio management fair value estimates affect the information you use as credit portfolio managers. today ’ s financial statements are based on a mixed - attribute accounting model. this means that an entity ’ s balance sheet may include certain values reported at historical cost and certain values reported at fair value. you probably learned more about this in yesterday ’ s break - out session about managing profit and loss volatility. fair values may be used as an analytic tool in the lending process and are compared with historical cost values. this historical cost information, along with associated disclosures, contains reliable information that provides insights into a firm ’ s expected cash flows. as the industry moves toward expanded use of fair value, i believe disclosure of certain historical cost information will remain essential. as i mentioned earlier, the reliability of the valuations and the transparency of the methods and inputs used to calculate the values are critically important. clearly, fair valuations will have an impact on leverage ratios, capital ratios, and other ratios used in the lending and credit - management process. credit portfolio managers will need to identify and understand the impact of changes in fair value estimates that result from changes in specific factors

the swap arrangement to the federal reserve ) at the exact same exchange rate that applied to the original transaction, they are conducted with major central banks with track records of prudent decisionmaking, and they are secured by the foreign currency provided by those central banks. 1f the success of these swap lines in alleviating funding pressures and reducing interbank borrowing rates is a testament to the benefits of central bank cooperation. moreover, in addition to easing funding shortages, these swaps also helped to allay market fears – they had a preventive as well as a curative role. for example, four of the central banks that participated in these arrangements – brazil, canada, new zealand, and singapore – did not end up drawing on the facilities, but it is generally believed that the existence of the lines helped prevent stresses that could have otherwise developed. as the financial crisis receded, the swap lines were closed in february 2010. however, swap lines with several foreign central banks were reopened in response to financial strains that developed in europe. 3 2f in many countries, policy rates fell to nearly zero. with substantial economic slack remaining, these central banks faced the challenge of finding ways to further ease monetary policy. the federal reserve expanded its balance sheet through the purchase of longer - term treasury securities, agency debt, and agency mortgage - backed securities. the idea was to put downward pressure on longer - term yields to spur demand and also to encourage some portfolio rebalancing toward riskier assets and loans to the private sector. more recently, the federal open market committee decided to extend the average maturity of its holdings of securities by selling shorter - maturity treasury securities and buying longer - maturity treasury securities. this maturity extension program created additional downward pressure on long - term rates without expanding the size of the federal reserve ’ s balance sheet. in addition to using conventional monetary policy and balance sheet tools to provide monetary accommodation, communication is an important tool used by central banks to the 14 central banks were those in australia, brazil, canada, denmark, the euro area, south korea, japan, new zealand, mexico, norway, singapore, sweden, switzerland, and the united kingdom. these swap lines have been renewed several times since then, with the current authorization running through february 2013. bis central bankers ’ speeches enhance the effectiveness of policy. at the conclusion of each meeting, the federal open market committee issues a statement of policy actions taken and the rationale for those actions. detailed minutes are published three weeks later, and lightly