Transparency in European banking system – a technical and economic approach

The objective of our paper is to provide a comprehensive analysis of possible relationships between two different approaches of “transparency” – the technical vs.the economic one. Thus, irrespective of prior literature, our paper goes beyond a “solo” analysis of either of two above-mentioned “facets”, by providing a combined study. So, we focused on both (1) XBRL’s role in enhancing the quality of disclosure, by assessing its benefices and consequences and (2) corporate governance mechanism’s power to improve efficiency and effectiveness of banking supervision by encouraging transparency. The results of the performed analysis generally reveal that there is a strong and positive relationship between the level of disclosure promoted by corporate governance codes enforced in European Union countries and the degree of implementation of both XBRL-based projects designed for banking environment (FINREP and COREP). Consequently, we can assert that there is a consensus between the economic and technical approach of transparency in European banking system.