Transparency in the Banking Sector

The growing complexity and dynamics of financial systems as well as the increasing risk of market failures calls for a higher level of transparency on global markets, especially in the banking sector, to foster a solid and smoothly functioning financial system. Primarily regulatory horities and central banks aspire to more transparent markets. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for instance, has stressed in its study 'Market 2000' the importance of greater transparency in secondary markets as it improves the price discovery, competitiveness, and the attractiveness of capital markets and thereby their fairness and efficiency. In its annual report from 1998-99 the International Monetary Fund (IMF) requires on the one hand governments and other official bodies to publicize their political aims and on the other hand major market participants to adjust their accounting methods to international standards so that third parties can form an opinion about their financial strength. More recently, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision accentuated the need for higher transparency in the banking sector by implementing Basel II at the beginning of 2008. There, transparency is imbedded in one of three pillars and should strengthen the security and soundness of the banking systems by assuming that well informed market participants will punish a poorly organized bank's risk management and reward a well functioning one.