Transparency Between Banks and Their Customers - Information Needs and Public Intervention

Factors such as the spread of complex financial instruments, the broadening of available alternatives, have fostered more decisive public intervention in support of transparency between banks and their customers. The effectiveness of the public intervention measures depends on the actual information needs of consumers. The aim of this paper is to assess the extent and characteristics of the information needs, by analyzing the decision-making processes. High financial sacrifice, high perceived risks, considerable differences between the available alternatives, seem to justify an intense search for information. The precision with which information is searched for would be reduced as an effect of financial experience and knowledge, an perceived excessive complexity of the service and stringent time pressure.