Andrew Tyrie, chairman of parliament's treasury committee, has written to Andrew Bailey, a deputy governor of the Bank of England, saying he wants a detailed explanation of how the regulator balances secrecy and public disclosures.

Tyrie said at a time of increased regulatory oversight too much of the information banks provide to supervisors and the advice then made to individual organisations remained confidential.

"It is not available to shareholders, creditors and depositors, the people with most 'skin in the game,'" Tyrie said in a statement. "Effective market discipline should be a priority for regulators. For this a high degree of transparency is required."

The aim of greater disclosure is to make sure taxpayers won't be needed again to rescue banks after the British government spent more than 130 billion pounds bailing out troubled lenders during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. So far just over half of that money has been recouped.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Mark Potter)