Information asymmetry between financial service providers and customers, especially in emerging economies, works to the advantage of the former. Therefore, transparency rules or disclosure regulations should, at the minimum, seek to create standardized and comparable information about pricing, suitability of the product to different population groups, terms and conditions and risks to customers and supervisory authorities.
Full disclosure of quality information should be combined with mechanisms to ensure that clients properly understand the information provided and their impact on their personal financial decisions. For countries where banking with formal institutions is still emerging, consumer protection measures must be a top priority. In all such cases the targeted client groups come from the most vulnerable and low income segments.