The third pillar is market discipline. The market is a great taskmaster. Greater transparency through public disclosure imposes strong incentives on institutions to conduct their business in a safe, sound and efficient manner. And it punishes institutions that do not. Market discipline is not a replacement for strong capital and vigilant oversight, but it is a necessary and desirable complement.
Market discipline is built on information disclosure.
That's not just my opinion. In short, we looked at the three pillars, and saw that the most rigorous standards were already Freddie Mac's common practices. Then we raised the bar with our six commitments. Let me touch on each. To put this in perspective, of the ten largest bank holding companies, only two have earned a rating this high on their senior debt - and none has a higher rating.