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

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