Finance

The NPA numbers game 

The WSJ takes on alleged improprieties at banks, which isn’t exactly a novel topic these days. The story zeroes in on the games played with non-performing assets — a subject near and dear to HW’s own editorial heart these days, given that we’ve been suggesting that many banks are under-reserving relative to the level of reported NPAs on the books. But when is an NPA not an NPA? Answer — when you get to pick the definition: