The Financial Accounting Standards Board might consider new rules to further curb off-balance-sheet abuses, but first it needs to see the outcome of a Securities and Exchange Commission study.

That’s the word from FASB Chairman Robert Herz in a letter to the House Financial Services Committee as it explores public policy implications of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. The Committee held a hearing to explore legislative action that might be appropriate based on the report of Lehman bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas, which describes some aggressive accounting maneuvers to shuttle assets off the balance sheet around the close of each period.

The report says Lehman treated some $50 billion in financing transactions as the sale of assets in order to move them off the balance sheet to mislead investors about the full measure of leverage weighing down the firm. Herz says it’s not clear from the examiner’s report alone whether there’s a problem with accounting standards or Lehman’s application of them.

“We do not have sufficient information to assess whether Lehman complied with or violated particular standards relating to accounting for repurchase agreements or consolidation of special purpose entities,” Herz wrote to the committee. “Furthermore, we do not know whether other major financial institutions may have engaged in accounting and reporting practices similar to those apparently employed by Lehman.”

The SEC is studying that very question after it sent a query to a few dozen major financial institutions asking for detailed information about how they account for repurchase agreements, securities lending transactions, and other transactions that involve the transfer of assets with an obligation to repurchase them. The SEC also posted a sample of the letter on its Website to give a sense for the issues it is exploring.

The letter asks for a long list of detailed information about such transactions if they received sale treatment—how much in each quarter for each of the past three years, how a repurchase qualified for sale treatment vs. a collateralized financing, how it was analyzed, what business reasons were behind it, how it affected key ratios that indicate financial performance, and more.

Herz said FASB will follow the SEC’s study. “As they obtain and evaluate that information, we will continue to work closely with them to discuss and consider whether any standard-setting actions by us may be warranted,” Herz wrote.

FASB recently overhauled its standards on consolidation, addressing when and how entities should be adding off-balance-sheet vehicles to their balance sheets. Financial Accounting Standards No. 166 and No. 167, now codified under Accounting Standards Codification Topic 810 Consolidation took effect with the beginning of the 2010 reporting year for calendar-year companies. The effort focused on variable-interest entities, however, and not necessarily individual securities or transactions.