Capital Briefs: Atlanta Fed President Urges Fuller Disclosure

Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Jack Guynn said Tuesday that banks, particularly the industry's largest players, should be required to make more information available to investors.

"Safety and soundness ought to become more a function of markets and less a function of supervisors," he said. "The job of supervisors will be to require transparency -- to ensure that markets get the information they need from individual institutions."

In a speech sponsored by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Mr. Guynn said banks may be required to disclose internal credit ratings, the fair value of loan portfolios, and risk management practices.

"Markets might also be better served," he said, "through disclosure of those categories in which an institution faces credit risk, the general nature of credit composition, and the potential exposure an institution faces in its securitization practices." -- Katharine Fraser

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER