Unlocking information

Throughout the crisis, banks have been criticised for failing to provide the quantity and quality of information needed for investors to gauge their financial health. But that trend could be reversed, with the Basel Committee zeroing in on disclosure as part of its Basel II reform package. It could be good news for third-party vendors. Clive Davidson reports

"We need more information," is the cry that has gone up from regulators and market participants since the financial crisis took hold in the second half of 2007. Regulators didn't have enough data to spot the systemic risks building up, banks didn't have enough information on the exposures each held, while investors had too little detail to get a proper picture of the capital adequacy of the institutions in which they were investing. To remedy this, regulators want banks to report and disclose