In times of economic uncertainty, politicians and policymakers call for more “transparency”. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, weighed in yesterday, with just such a call for more openness from the financial markets. If we only knew more, the argument goes, we would not have got ourselves into such trouble.

This is not true. The fact is that the levels of disclosure in the City are unprecedented. The likes of Synapse, the hedge fund that announced yesterday that it was closing a fund because of “severe illiquidity”, produced reams of data about the assets it was investing in and the returns it expected. For many investors — indeed, for many extremely experienced fund managers — the problem is not the lack of information, but the excess of it. The financiers who have been bundling different kinds of debt and, with the help of the ratings agencies, secured guarantees that these were top-quality investments, have snowed their clients under with financial models.

What is needed is not more transparency, but better explanations. And the obvious person to provide clear, sensible guidance is Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, charged not just with holding down inflation, but maintaining stability in the financial market.

Mr King has, of course, been as conspicuous by his absence as the sunshine this summer. He spoke after the release of the Inflation Report last month, but, since then, the Bank has provided only silent assistance to financial institutions suffering in the liquidity crisis. The European Central Bank and the US Fed have been more active in the provision of short-term lending, but also more explanatory of their reasons and, with regard to interest rates, their intentions. Unexpected words of reassurance from the Governor can have entirely the opposite effect. But the silence has become disconcerting. As noted here last week, the Bank’s treatment of Barclays last week was cack-handed. It insisted on secrecy, thereby adding to uncertainty, which, in turn, stoked anxiety about the health of one of Britain’s biggest banks and the financial markets in general. It could have — and should have — provided not transparency, but a better explanation at the time.

Mr King has a clear opportunity to make amends. The Bank does not say anything when the Monetary Policy Committee meets and it chooses to make no change in interest rates. Tomorrow, there is unlikely to be any movement in interest rates. There should be a statement.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive