The SEC will convene a teleconference today of international securities regulators to "discuss urgent regulatory issues om the ongoing credit crisis."

According to the press release, the technical committee will consider "manipulative short selling" and "under-regulated or unregulated products."

With regard to the first, it will be interesting to see if we ever get some case history of what constitutes "manipulative short selling." To see just what the SEC deems to be manipulation, we'll have to wait and see what the enforcement cases show.

With regard to the second consideration, the international confab intends to "develop disclosure principles to promote transparency in OTC markets for derivatives and other financial instruments which will contribute to enhanced investor protection and mitigating systemic risk." Good idea there; late, though.

The interesting thing is the other matter to be considered: international accounting standards. The issue to address for the international regulators is to "ensure that the process of developing international accounting standards continues to take account of the interests of investors." That sounds like it could refer to the lack of independent funding of the IASB - or the dive the board had to take with regard to the fair value exception to achieve a "level playing field" (three of the more dangerous words in standard setting, by the way). In any case - it sounds like the SEC is being more cautious, at least superficially, in its pursuit of international accounting standards in the US. It could be invoking "investor interests" to give it a more graceful exit; it could weigh in the favor of the next administration if they don't like the idea. It's going to be an interesting transition at the SEC.