Let me therefore begin by explaining how central banks across advanced economies, and the ECB in particular, have taken up the challenge of transparency and openness. Transparency and monetary policy effectiveness Up until the early 1990s, central banks tended to be rather secretive institutions, inclined to lock away their thinking like the gold in their vaults 1.
Remember that it was only in 1994 that the Federal Reserve decided to make its interest rate decisions public. Before that, markets had to guess whether or not the FOMC had changed its federal funds rate target.