North China’s Shanxi province claimed the third place nationwide for transparency of financial information at provincial level, according to the 2015 China Finance Transparency Report released on Oct 31.

The report, made by the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, included the financial public information of 31 provinces and municipalities in 2013, among which Shandong province occupied the top place with 57.01 points.

It’s the seventh such report since China implemented provincial finance transparency investigations, operated by searching for online information and publications as well as applying for information from related authorities. The investigation results in a score from 0 to 100 to evaluate the finance information in seven parts.

According to the report, China’s finance transparency at provincial levels saw slight but stable increase since the first investigation in 2009. The average score of the 31 provinces and municipalities in 2015 was 36.04, up 10.28 percent, from 2009’s average score of 32.68.

However, this transparency still does not reach international standards, the report indicated.