The sector may be paying a price for its cleverness, and for all those complex products and-off balance-sheet vehicles that seemed to be working so well in the good years.
Santander should rightfully take its bow alongside its regulators, who closed off the capital benefits of building up big off-balance-sheet positions and required Spanish banks to put aside provisions during the upswing.
Part of the blame goes to off-balance-sheet equipment leases that EDS has handed off to banks.
As the concerns of investors increased, money center banks and other large financial institutions have come under significant pressure to take onto their own balance sheets the assets of some of the off-balance-sheet investment vehicles that they had sponsored.
But most of those initiatives have either failed to get off the drawing board, such as the MLEC, which was aimed at relieving banks of their off-balance-sheet liabilities, or they have fallen short, such as the HOPE NOW Alliance for modifying mortgages.
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Nearly a year ago, even France admitted to having off-balance-sheet transactions and hiding debt.
This egregious error is even more offensive to common sense than Enron's use of off-balance-sheet vehicles.
Frequent use was made of off-balance-sheet vehicles, on a greater scale even than Enron.
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So were the company's links with the obscure off-balance-sheet partnerships that were subsequently to trigger its downfall.
It all sounds suspiciously like the subprime mortgage boom, when banks parked illiquid assets in off-balance-sheet vehicles.
Off-balance-sheet transactions, widely used by Enron and employed by many companies for legitimate reasons, further obfuscate the picture.
Banks themselves engaged in a binge of creating off-balance-sheet structures, most notably with so-called SIVs (structured investment vehicles).
To finance the off-balance-sheet assets, the government set deposit interest rates at very low levels: 1% or so.
For instance, they are carrying large off-balance-sheet liabilities and have secured loans with collateral that does not exist.
Another line of defence is expected to rest on Mr Fastow's self-enrichment from off-balance-sheet partnerships that dealt with Enron.
But these are far different animals from the off-balance-sheet monsters that led to the collapse of Enron in 2001.
The accounting standards for both these trades and repo-to-maturity trades allowed off-balance-sheet treatment.
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Some banks woke up early to the risks and are reducing their off-balance-sheet loan commitments as fast as they can.
Morgan Chase spokesman argues the new rule would cover only a fraction of the off-balance-sheet liabilities and therefore isn't a problem.
In February 2010, Greece admitted that through assistance from Goldman Sachs, it used off-balance-sheet transactions to hide its deficit and national debt.
On the other hand, weakening consumer credit in America and uncertainty over its exposure to off-balance-sheet assets will add to the subprime worries.
Other factors that might raise red flags include a high proportion of off-balance-sheet transactions, frequent changes in auditor and delays to earnings announcements.
Not accounted for in these sovereign debt numbers is the banks' exposure to off-balance-sheet items, equities and commercial and residential loans in PIIGS countries.
Even those banks that are in good shape may want to hold back amid uncertainty over capital-adequacy requirements and accounting rules for off-balance-sheet assets.
When adapting the Enron book for television, the movie's writer, Stephen Mazur , knew he had to gloss over the complexities of Enron's off-balance-sheet partnerships.
In a regulatory filing last week, Citi said it had received subpoenas and information requests relating to subprime mortgages, mortgage securities, derivatives and off-balance-sheet funds.
China's bank regulators have been working to curb bank off-balance-sheet lending.
FASB, which in the case of Enron's off-balance-sheet entities required consolidation.
The amount of loans treated this way is unclear because nobody centrally collates the data, and Fitch says its three trillion yuan estimate for off-balance-sheet credit is rough.
If Andersen is found actually to have advised on the design of Enron's off-balance-sheet vehicles, as the company implies, it will find it hard to plead ignorance over their construction.
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