“Solvency pressures are mounting as credit risks come to the fore,” APRA chief Wayne Byres said in a speech last night.

Byres said “transparency will become even more important” to financial markets over coming months.

“As much as we have all worked to overcome a torrid past few months, we also need to keep in mind that the real battles for the financial sector remain ahead.

“Markets depend on information. In times of uncertainty, timely, reliable and accurate information is especially highly valued,” he said.

“We have learned from previous crises that if markets lose faith in any of those characteristics, they will tend to run first and ask questions later. We cannot afford that to happen.”

Byres said companies should “not be tempted to panic and switch the lights off … we do not want analysts, investors or rating agencies to overestimate the size of the problem by assuming the worst in the absence of information.

“Even without regulatory prompting, banks should err on the side of revealing more rather than less,” he said.

“Ensuring financial and operational resilience will be the priority, because the threats are substantial,” he said.

Byres was speaking at meeting of the International Banking Federation.