Morgan Stanley, Goldman Move Away From Mark-to-Market on Loan Commitments

"Both New York-based firms had losses on relationship lending last year and face differing treatment from regulators between HFI and fair-value commitments. Fair-value accounting often requires firms to book losses on the commitments, even if they aren't tapped by the borrowers, while commercial bank competitors avoid mark-to-market declines by holding the commitments at historical cost."