Australia's major banks will be roped into disclosing more detail on their activities, in a manner consistent with reporting standards for the world's most dominant banks.The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority yesterday outlined a shift in its thinking in a discussion paper and draft prudential standards.The new disclosures cover•    global systemically-important banks •    the leverage ratio, and•    the liquidity coverage ratioAPRA said its proposals "form part of its implementation of the post-crisis reforms that aim to promote a more resilient banking sector."It said these were "intended to improve market discipline and transparency by equipping market participants with key information about an ADI's risk profile."Disclosures "for the identification of potential G-SIBs" - or globally significant international banks - will now apply to the existing D-SIBS, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, National Australia Bank and Westpac."The internationally-agreed framework for identifying G-SIBs requires that large banks (defined as those with a leverage ratio exposure measure above €200 billion) disclose 12 indicators used in the G-SIB identification methodology," APRA observed."This disclosure ensures that the framework remains transparent, and that interested parties are able to anticipate when and how the G-SIB requirements, including additional capital requirements, will be applied." APRA said that "even though they are not currently identified as G-SIBs, APRA proposes that the four major Australian ADIs" meet these standards.Leverage ratio disclosures will be required from banks "with approval from APRA to use an internal ratings-based approach to credit risk under the risk-based capital adequacy framework."Macquarie is in this group alongside the Big Four.There is no minimum leverage ratio requirement proposed by APRA for now, with "any decision on implementation of a minimum leverage requirement only taken once the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision agrees a minimum international standard," APRA said.APRA also proposes that those ADIs subject to the liquidity coverage ratio "disclose certain data in relation to their ratios, and provide sufficient qualitative discussion to enable market participants to gain a broad picture of their liquidity risk profile."Over time this may build into detailed disclosure on the use of the RBA committed liquidity facility."Wayne Byres, chair of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, provided some context to these changes in a speech yesterday."If we want to be able to say we have done the best we can to avoid a repeat of the excesses that built up during the [2008] crisis [we must] improve the behaviour of the industry," he said.Byres also emphasised "an increasing lack of faith in the use of internal models by the largest banks to calculate risk-weighted assets."At the height of the financial crisis, investors turned away from the risk-based ratios as a measure of financial health, and quickly reverted to a basic leverage ratio," he said."This was an interesting litmus test as to whether investors felt they could rely on the internal-model based measures of capital adequacy in times of stress."They did not. "This unfortunate conclusion has been reinforced by the recent studies by the Basel Committee, which found excessive levels of variability in bank calculations of risk weighted assets for