Bankers to Rate Emerging Markets : Finance: Data disclosure list is designed to avert crises like the one that occurred in Mexico.

A group representing most major global banks plans to identify emerging-market countries that release timely, complete financial data in an effort to help head off future Mexico-style crises.

The Institute of International Finance, a Washington-based group supported by commercial and investment banks and many mutual funds, aims to release its first report before the October board meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington, said Charles Dallara, managing director of the institute.

“We will say what are good standards” of financial data disclosure and list those countries that meet them, Dallara said at a news conference. Though the institute won’t identify countries that aren’t up to par, their absence from the list “will speak for itself,” he said.

This approach is seen as a way of avoiding public condemnation of a country and therefore rapid investment flight, Dallara said.

The data capabilities surveyed by the institute will include government foreign currency reserves, liabilities, inward and outward capital flows and trade figures.

The institute’s effort is meant to complement the development of an “early warning system” by the International Monetary Fund to tip off financial markets about countries that pose high investment risks, Dallara said.

After the financial crisis in Mexico last winter and the flight of investors from that market, some experts said the availability of better information on the government’s reserves and other economic indicators could have lessened the panic.

Dallara said market forces “over time will enforce the standards” of better disclosure as it becomes evident which countries’ financial authorities are providing the information needed by banks and other institutions.

The institute also expects its survey to improve lines of communication between the IMF and global banks, which could help them cope better with future international financial emergencies.

“The basis is here for a better and faster reaction” by the fund and banks, said Josef Ackermann, the institute’s vice chairman and president of the executive board of Credit Suisse.

However, the institute’s deputy managing director, Anthony Bottrill, said the provision of good, timely data doesn’t always indicate that a country is in strong financial shape.

“Some of the countries with the best data have spent the last 10 years in the IMF’s emergency ward,” Bottrill said.

He said the institute staff had met with about 40 financial institutions to gauge what kind of information they consider essential from developing countries. The institute will meet later this month with officials from about 25 countries to survey what kind of data they release and when.