It turns out the old accounting game of delay-and-pray sometimes works, as much as it pains me to admit this, which is why many banks do it when they get in trouble. They usually don’t like to talk about the game while it’s in progress, and it often ends badly.
But it has worked out pretty well so far at UniCredit SpA, the Italian bank that yesterday reported a 15 billion-euro ($20.8 billion) fourth-quarter loss.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-03-12/this-big-bank-s-ceo-delayed-prayed-and-turned-out-ok... more...