This report sets out the rationale and preliminary findings of the data sharing exercise between G-7 and the World Bank, which has been extended to all Paris Club creditors on a voluntary basis. The exercise was initiated by Japan as an important contribution to furthering the agenda for greater debt transparency particularly regarding the world’s poorest countries. The current exercise is the first step in the process of reconciling information reported by debtorsto the World Bank Debtor Reporting System (DRS) with the comparable creditor data. As a second step, this exercise could be institutionalized and extended to other creditors (in particular G20 creditors) in order to improve data reporting in a permanent way.