The pension threat to credit quality

In the past 12 months corporate analysts, lenders and investors have had much to contend with, operating in an environment where complex and often highly subjective accounting conventions have allowed for, at best, financial obfuscation and, at worst, outright fraud.

The experience, along with the accompanying downgrades and defaults, has heightened the degree of sensitivity to any area of financial reporting where the permissible discretion within the accounting regulations allows for potential