Standard setters hope to reach a definitive set of rules only by 2011.

ECONOMIST: European insurers

But there is no doubt that the summit's action plan includes a long list of financial sector dimensions to be addressed, including: accounting standards, hedge funds, risk disclosures, financial sector assessments, credit rating agencies, risk-management and stress-testing models, international standard setters, sanctions for misconduct, reporting to supervisors in different countries, and more.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Behind the scenes, they have been taking aim at someone else: the accounting standard-setters.

ECONOMIST: Banks and accounting standards

These include reforms that would affect bank regulators, supervisors and accounting standard-setters, and cover bankers' pay, derivatives trading and rating agencies.

ECONOMIST: The G20

The details may be arcane, but the independence of standard-setters, essential to the proper functioning of capital markets, is being compromised.

ECONOMIST: Banks and accounting standards

The Financial Stability Board, which co-ordinates the G20's financial policies, has asked standard-setters and regulators to find ways of yanking ratings out of rules on bank capital, fund holdings, margin agreements and so on.

ECONOMIST: Credit-rating agencies

Accounting standard-setters have been arm-twisted into relaxing rules that force banks to mark certain assets to market, but in the long run that may hurt confidence in the health of bank balance-sheets, not help it.

ECONOMIST: Meltdown may have been averted. But the crunch is not over