The largest global lenders are facing political pressure to fully declare the extent of their losses experienced during the US mortgage crises, which led to the international credit squeeze.

The move follows a meeting of G7 leaders and the Financial Stability Forum at the weekend – who said the lack of clarity was exacerbating the crises.

The leaders took into account an FSF report into the recent crises which called for greater clarity and a review of accounting rules. The FSF found that some companies failed to properly price the risk of exposures to off-balance sheet vehicles, at precisely the time that it became difficult or expensive to raise funds to deal with the issue.

The G7 and FSF is also expected to announce a UK-US working group – of senior government and regulatory figures - who will develop ways of monitoring the banking system, following meetings between Alistair Darling and US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, the Times reported.

After talks in Rome on the weekend, the FSF said: 'Financial institutions should continue enhancing their disclosures of risk exposures . . . While the necessary deleveraging has been ongoing since last summer, the process is being complicated by a lack of transparency and valuation difficulties from some credit instruments.'

Further reading:

Watchdogs push for accounting rules review

FSF report on Observations on Risk Management Practices during the Recent Market Turbulence