Or to buy short-term paper issued by off-the-balance-sheet financial units of major banks that were not transparent to the investment community.
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.
The best explanation is that banks make the off-balance-sheet pledges as a favor, hoping to win a client's business the next time it offers stock or buys a company, says James Davis, president of Loan Pricing Corp.
To finance the off-balance-sheet assets, the government set deposit interest rates at very low levels: 1% or so.
But these are far different animals from the off-balance-sheet monsters that led to the collapse of Enron in 2001.
Morgan Chase spokesman argues the new rule would cover only a fraction of the off-balance-sheet liabilities and therefore isn't a problem.
Unlike the off-balance-sheet cesspools that hid losses at Enron, these energy partnerships are publicly traded, many on the New York Stock Exchange, and offer a respectable amount of liquidity and transparency.
But even the positive numbers ignore the fact that Enron was at the same time dramatically increasing its asset base through mergers and by issuing debt (not even considering unreported debt owed by the off-balance-sheet partnerships).
"Even with all the transparency in the world you have to be a genius to understand these statements, " referring to the near-impenetrable description of derivative contracts and other off-balance-sheet items included in the financial reports and footnotes filed by the banks and investment banks.
During the meeting, Hulse passed around a memo, disclosing that PwC had erred in approving the accounting treatment for the off-balance sheet entities, the suit says.
Unlike the opaque Lehman, MF Global fully disclosed the trades and their accounting treatment including the off-balance sheet effect.
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Hence the need to conjure money out of thin air, or rather the government's off-balance-sheet equivalents the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which may provide loans and guarantees without a word from Congress.
However, evidence emerged in the Andersen trial that Mr Fastow had rejected a particular accounting treatment for some of the off-balance sheet partnerships, adopting instead something that did not conform with American accounting rules.
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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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.
However, the volume of products that it keeps off-balance-sheet where the bank technically isn't responsible to cover any losses fell.
PwC came to this conclusion after consulting with three of the other big accounting firms and each firm indicated that the unit didn't qualify for off-balance sheet treatment, the suit says.
Then we'll regulate the leverage they employ--on and off of the balance sheet.
So were the company's links with the obscure off-balance-sheet partnerships that were subsequently to trigger its downfall.
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.
The revelations that sparked the crisis in October, about off-balance sheet partnerships, accounting restatements and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, were embarrassing, certainly.
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.
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.
That might be a price worth paying if it paved the way for a faster restructuring of the U.K. balance sheet, including the writing-off of unsustainable debts.
Part of the blame goes to off-balance-sheet equipment leases that EDS has handed off to banks.
Historic liabilities have to be honoured (and properly accounted for, rather than hidden off the government's balance-sheet).
The IMF fears that off-balance-sheet lending by Chinese banks as well as credit from lightly regulated nonbank lenders could backfire on the world's second-largest economy.
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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.
Some banks woke up early to the risks and are reducing their off-balance-sheet loan commitments as fast as they can.
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.
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