Transparency and financial reporting in mid-20th century British banking

Mark Billings and Forrest Capie

Accounting forum, 2009, vol. 33, issue 1, 38-53

Abstract: Until 1970, British banks were firm believers in the merits of ‘non-disclosure’, which obscured their ‘true’ profits and capital through profits smoothing and the use of hidden reserves. Many other companies adopted the same view for as long as legislation permitted, but there were special reasons why non-disclosure endured for longer in banking. This paper examines the persistence and demise of non-disclosure in banking, placing it in the context of the wider development of financial reporting in Britain, and highlights similarities and differences in financial reporting between banks and other types of company.

Keywords: Banks; Hidden reserves; Disclosure; Transparency; Stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0155998208000422
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:accfor:v:33:y:2009:i:1:p:38-53

DOI: 10.1016/j.accfor.2008.07.003

Access Statistics for this article

Accounting forum is currently edited by Glen Lehman

More articles in Accounting forum from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().