Until the government or the Financial Accounting Standards Board requires companies to report more, this is the best figure available.

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Companies must uphold contracts, lenders must use discretion, accounting departments must report accurate financial data and corporate insiders must conduct business responsibly (heck, even legally would do) for credit markets to work like they are intended.

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America's Financial Accounting Standards Board proposed an overhaul of the way banks report loans on their sheets, by linking them more firmly to market valuations.

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While publicly traded companies in the U.S. must make quarterly financial reports within 45 days of an accounting period's close and an annual report within 90 days, nonprofits need to issue numbers just once a year, and this data can be a year or more out of date.

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In September the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board recommended that America's government include similar calculations in its yearly financial report by 2013.

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