Bank transparency under scrutiny : assessing the COVID-19 debt moratoria program

composition. Banks with a higher share of corporate loans tend to exhibit a less pronounced decline in transparency, suggesting that lending practices influence how banks adjust their disclosure behaviour in response to regulatory interventions. Originality/value: This study sheds light on the unintended consequences of regulatory interventions during crises. While debt moratoria helped banks manage the risks associated with non-performing loans, they also came at the cost of reduced transparency. These findings suggest that regulators should carefully consider the potential trade-offs between transparency and other objectives when crafting crisis-response measures. Data availability: Financial accounting data is retrieved from BankFocus Orbis BVD; loan amounts under moratoria measures have been collected from the Eurozone-listed bank's annual reports for 2020-2022. [Publisher's text]