Firms that operated with the two main ingredients for solid governance and controls – thorough information and strong incentives – have come through this tumultuous period in better condition. Lastly, supervisors' comparative reviews also identified valuation practices as critical.
The SSG reported that those firms that paid close attention to the problems associated with the valuation of financial instruments, particularly those for which markets were not deep, fared better. These more-successful firms developed in-house expertise to conduct independent valuations and refrained from relying solely on third-party assessments.