Financial brawls: SEC commissioner wants 'derivative risk' detailed in annual reports. (derivatives market) (Financial Matters)

MIAMI - Just when investors thought it was safe to enjoy the current boom in stock prices, the Securities and Exchange Commission has found a massive amount of potential investor risk.

* More than $7 trillion worth of risk that is bought and sold in the derivatives market has been kept off the public books of major financial institutions, corporations, mutual funds, pension funds, bond funds and brokerage houses.

* There is no way that boards of directors or stockholders can know how much their companies have at risk in the derivatives markets under today's accounting standards.

In a wide-ranging interview, J. Carter Beese, commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission told South Florida Business Journal that he has identified derivative risk as an area of "critical SEC concern."

"For the first time in the history of modern financial reporting, you cannot take a look at the balance sheet of a corporation and learn the financial health of …