A number of authors have argued that the Asian banking crisis of the late 1990s was exacerbated “by the lack of transparency and disclosure in the banking system, making it difficult to gauge the severity of the situation or propose timely solutions” (Rosengren, 1998, p2).
Since then there have been moves by central banks to impose greater disclosure on commercial banks and to ensure standardisation and definitional clarity around disclosed information. The Reserve Bank has required all banks to publish quarterly disclosure statements since 1 January 1996. Markets function better with transparency of information (e.g.