Bank Disclosure Index: Global Assessment of Bank Disclosure Practices

Abstract

The report assigns a composite bank disclosure index to each of the 180 countries surveyed in the study, yearly since 1994. Using a checkbox approach to analyze financial statements of individual banks, the index seeks to quantitatively measure the actual disclosure practices of commercial banks around the world, in relation to their assets, liabilities, funding, incomes, and risk profiles. The measurement framework is compatible with International Monetary Funds (IMF's), Financial Soundness Indicators (FSI) system, as well as Basel Committee's prescriptions on bank accounting disclosures. The framework is applicable to banks in low and mid-income countries. Specific policy prescriptions can be made automatically based on the sub-index and sub-component scores linked to individual disclosure categories. The report also utilizes the time-series and cross-sectional variations of the index to conduct a series of assessments and diagnoses on several systematically important developing countries and regions, as examples to demonstrate the index's policy applications.