Second Meeting of the Working Party on Transparency and Accountability

A Working Party on Transparency and Accountability held its second meeting in Hong Kong on 11 and 12 July, 1998. The Working Party was set up following a meeting in Washington, D.C. of representatives of the following 22 economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Working Party on Transparency and Accountability, together with a working party on strengthening financial systems co-chaired by Mario Draghi (Italy) and Pablo Guidotti (Argentina), and a working party on international financial crises, co-chaired by David Lipton (USA) and Martin Werner (Mexico), was created to study how to strengthen the international financial system against the background of the Asian financial crisis.

The first meeting of the Working Party on Transparency and Accountability was held in London on 23 May 1998 and was hosted by the Bank of England. The Working Party consists of representatives from Ministries of Finance and Central Banks. It is co-chaired by Mervyn King, Deputy Governor of Bank of England, and Andrew Sheng, Deputy Chief Executive of Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Observers from the IMF, World Bank, BIS and OECD attended the meeting in Hong Kong.

The meeting in Hong Kong discussed topics including: the type and quality of information needed by national authorities, the private sector, and international financial institutions; the gaps in provision of information; accounting and data compilation issues; incentives to produce and disseminate information; ways to utilise available information better and the degree of transparency required to enhance accountability.

The Working Party will hold its next meeting in Washington, D.C. in early September this year. Its report is expected by the time of the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in October.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority

12 July 1998