Most accountants in senior executive positions don't blame the Financial Accounting Standards Board's new fair value rules for worsening the subprime crisis, but neither do they think the regulations do much good when it comes to educating investors about risky lending practices either, according the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Only 17% of the 1,400 corporate accounting executives responding to the poll said FASB's mark-to-market regulations contributed to the credit crisis; 83% said they did not have an impact. Moreover, 65% said the rules failed to achieve FASB's goal of educating investors about aggressive lending, with only 35% suggesting they helped investors understand the risks beneath the numbers.

"It appears that the jury is still out on fair value accounting, at least among corporate executives with accounting backgrounds," says Mark Lang, the Thomas W. Hudson Jr./Deloitte and Touche LLP distinguished professor of accounting at the UNC Kenan-Flagler business school. Respondents included CPAs who hold positions as CFOs, Controllers, CEOs or COOs.