Information Transparency: Approaches to Evaluation, Key Features, Trends

To increase the level of information transparency of economic entities is one of the most important tasks for the development of the domestic financial market within the framework of the state national programs implementation. The article provides a detailed review of the current methods and practices of reputable international and Russian rating agencies and professional communities for assessing information transparency of economic entities, it also defines and systemizes the basic characteristics disclosed by companies. The article identifies the main patterns and positive trends in the development of information transparency of Russian business over the past ten to fifteen years. The analysis shows that there has been a positive trend in disclosures in Russian business, but the level of transparency is still far from the level of Western companies. The applied methods vary greatly in the choice of indicators and assessment criteria, depending on the target nature and the specifics of the study, so determining the optimal level of information transparency is very subjective. Since transparency measurement largely depends of the branch of industry, the authors propose to develop this concept taking into consideration the special features of different segments such as credit organizations, financial companies, leasing organizations and others.