pre - existing ones, which would afford greater certainty to trade relations while reducing their cost, would also help attain this goal. to conclude, i believe that, by sharing experiences and outlooks, fora such as this one help gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that we, the economic and monetary authorities, must face. i hope that you are able to benefit fully from the discussions held over the coming days and wish you a pleasant stay in seville.

informed decisions on whether to invest in the institution as a potential shareholder, bondholder or depositor, or to enter into an insurance contract in the case of insurers. create a well - informed market, which is a precondition for improving the efficiency of the financial system by helping to better allocate society ’ s scarce resources. welfare is enhanced when funds flow freely between more and less risky investment opportunities, provided those risks can be discerned and priced adequately. this applies to investments in financial institutions as much as it does to the businesses and financial products that they lend to or invest in. for example, riskier financial institutions should face commensurately higher funding costs. there is some evidence, mostly from the united states and europe, that market information affects the pricing, risk and behaviour of financial institutions. the reserve bank has recently undertaken some analytical work that finds similar, albeit tentative, results for new zealand. 4 this analysis also suggests that the more visibility disclosures get, the more impact they have. this work is informing our evolving approach to disclosures, set out below. the disclosure of information, by itself, will not achieve the benefits described above. too much information, and the wrong sort, can obfuscate, confuse and detract from market participants ’ ability to monitor and exert discipline over financial institutions. too much information may also, paradoxically, be used to hide evidence of poor practice or wrong - doing. most importantly, the information itself needs to be trustworthy and meet a number of attributes to be effective. international standards identify a number of characteristics of public information that can enhance the benefits of disclosure and market discipline : 5 decision - useful and accessible : that means presented in a way that is appropriate for the information and distributed in ways market participants can easily access. timely : information should be of sufficient frequency and timeliness to be useful. comprehensive and meaningful : information should be sufficiently comprehensive so market participants can form a well - rounded view, including the risks faced. it should be sufficiently aggregated to provide a proper overall picture, and sufficiently disaggregated so distinct material items can be clearly identified. reliable : information should accurately reflect what it purports to describe. note, there is some potential trade - off between reliability ( getting the numbers 100 percent right ) and timeliness. comparable : the methods and assumptions used in the preparation of information ( particularly for financial reporting based on accounting standards which allow a degree of flexibility ) should