FSA: 'honest and open statement' of bank balance sheets

In a classic oxymoron, the UK's Financial Services Administration is conducting an 'honest and open statement' of bank balance sheets in which it is going to report to everyone what it finds.

Hello, but an 'honest and open statement' of bank balance sheets would be to require the banks to provide ultra transparency and disclose on an ongoing basis their current global asset, liability and off-balance sheet exposure details.

As Matt Taibbi asserted in an article on the US bank bailouts, the US government has adopted the policy of lying about the condition of its largest banks.

Why should the UK government be any different?

After all, if the UK government is telling the truth, then it has nothing to hide and should be willing to require banks to provide ultra transparency.

The failure to provide ultra transparency is a big red flag that says 'do not trust the FSA honest and open statement of bank balance sheet findings'.

As reported by the Guardian,

Whether the rally [in bank stocks] is sustained will depend on the outcome of the "honest and open statement" of bank balance sheets currently being carried out by the FSA – another test of whether regulators will hold a hard line in the face of an ailing economy.