In 2001, the Brazilian Central Bank issued Circular letter 3.068, determining the use of market value to evaluate debt and equity securities. This letter states that debt and equity securities must be classified in one of the following categories: trading, available for sale and held to maturity. The securities for trading and available for sale have to be evaluated and reported by their market value and those held to maturity must be reported by historical cost. The purpose of this work is to study the accounting methods of securities adopted in Brazil, especially those rules stated to financial institutions, in comparison with the statement of FASB and IASB. The comparison of the accounting methods of securities adopted in Brazil (Circular 3.068/01) with the statements of FASB (SFAS 115) and IASB (IAS 39) showed that, in the main aspects, the rules are in harmony, although some minor differences have been identified.
Debt and equity securities; Market value accounting; Financial institutions
