LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Monday it would cease publishing a weekly snapshot of its balance sheet in full to make liquidity support operations more effective by keeping them under wraps at the time they take place.
The Bank Return publication will be replaced by a new weekly report that will typically disclose over 90 percent of the Bank's balance sheet by value.
However, it will omit data relating to bilateral operations and only report them with a delay of five quarters, it said.
The changes come as the Bank has sought to increase transparency with the adoption of "forward guidance" last year as it tried to manage market expectations in a post-crisis, ultra-low interest rate environment.
"The changes announced today address the disclosure risk which exists in the Bank Return while retaining transparency about the Bank's regular operations," the Bank said in a statement.
"The provision of liquidity support to illiquid but solvent banks is a core function of the Bank and experience suggests that it is more effective for such operations to remain covert at the time, so as not to further undermine confidence in the institution receiving support."
The Bank said the last Bank Return will be published on September 25 and the first weekly report will be published a week later.
(Reporting by Ana Nicolaci da Costa Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)