American Express, Fifth Third Cited for Accounting Moves

Wall Street’s watchdog is making good on its promise to crack down on companies that use unofficial earnings measures to strip out the effect of the biggest change to bank accounting in decades.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has warned American Express Corp. and Fifth Third Bancorp to refrain from touting earnings metrics that essentially undo the current expected credit loss (CECL) accounting standard, according to comment letters the regulator released recently.

Companies are allowed to use measures that don’t comply with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles—non-GAAP—to weed out unusual, one-time expenses or to show their performance ...