An important milestone has been reached in global finance. For the first time, the currency of a developing country has joined the special drawing right (SDR) basket of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Chinese Renminbi has received this global recognition for the currency’s importance both in global trade and in cross-border financial transactions.

This may herald the beginning of a fundamental shift in global finance that spells the end of hegemony by a small handful of advanced countries. Yet, it is in no one’s interest if the restructuring of the global financial architecture lowers the standards of the global financial system.

Nowhere is this more important than on the issue of transparency. After all, what is the financial market but an efficient system for conveying information about the value of various assets. As the central bank for one of the most widely used currencies in the world and now a SDR currency, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) should no longer obscure so many elements of its own balance sheet.