Will Greater Disclosure and Transparency Prevent the Next Banking Crisis?

Greater transparency and disclosure of bank activities will not prevent future banking crises unless appropriate monetary, fiscal, and regulatory policies are also adopted. Nonetheless, greater disclosure of banking problems can reduce the costs of banking crises, even if transparency is not a panacea for preventing banking crises. key words: Disclosure, Transparency, Banking Crisis This paper was presented at a conference jointly sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the International Monetary Fund and is forthcoming in An Analysis of the Asian Financial Crisis, to be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. * Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 600 Atlantic Avenue, Boston, MA 02106, (617) 973-3090, e-mail [email protected] The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston or the Federal Reserve System.