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Home News Full disclosure: Tough on banks, reassuring for depositors, investors

Full disclosure: Tough on banks, reassuring for depositors, investors

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… Accountability, transparency, prudence remain grand norm

Full disclosure by banks is included in the four-point agenda of the Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi-led dministration at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The reason is not far fetched -full disclosure is the mandatory financial, operational and management information which financial institutions are required to disclose when rendering their periodic returns to the regulatory authorities and the public. The process has to do with ensuring the integrity of data while presenting reports to the supervisory authority and the public, in order to enable them ascertain the true financial position and performance of deposit money banks. The objectives behind the introduction of full disclosure requirements, according to the CBN, are essentially to provide economic agents (depositors and investors) and other stakeholders with appropriate information that will assist them in evaluating the financial positions and performances of banks, and enable them obtain better understanding of banks’ operations. When the CBN made this agenda public, many industry watchers and operators were keen to know how it would benefit depositors and investors, especially considering the high level of exposure of banks in the capital market and their importance to the financing of other sectors. According to the CBN, the full disclosure measure will impact on the depositors and investors in the financial market. “The full disclosure measures are primarily meant to further entrench sound corporate governance in the financial system where accountability, transparency and prudence are the grand norm. Hence, the intention of the CBN is to provide users, including investors and depositors, with requisite information to enable them evaluate the financial position, performance and operations of banks, with a view to taking well-informed decisions as to where to put their money,” said the banking watchdog. It is of the view that the ultimate aim is to have in place a full-disclosure regime that will put the nation’s banking industry at par with best practices and international standards, adding that the measure is pursuant to the attainment of the world-acclaimed requirements of BASEL 11and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). “In view of the objectives of full disclosure by banks, an overarching and implicit objective of banking regulation and supervision is to ensure the emergence of a strong, safe, stable and reliable banking system that will engender and sustain the confidence of depositors and other stakeholders,” said the CBN. To the financial institutions and the market in general, the provision of adequate information enhances the integrity of banks and reduces the reputational risks that could result in loss of confidence and patronage. “It will also help to reduce market uncertainty and limit the risk of unwarranted contagion. The effort of the Bank at enhancing the current regime of information disclosure by banks will help to further promote market discipline,” assured the apex bank.

 

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