The Federal Reserve this month will take a step toward revealing more about its oversight of the financial system, an area where the central bank has yet to match the strides it has taken toward transparency in monetary policy.

With the scheduled publication of annual stress-test findings in March, the Fed will for the first time describe how rising interest rates could affect the health of the nation's biggest banks.

Last year, the Fed didn't disclose results of a similar test, even though the U.S. Treasury's Office of Financial Research had flagged interest-rate risk as the one code-red concern in the financial system. Almost four years after the Dodd-Frank Act gave the Fed unprecedented authority over the banking industry, Democrats and Republicans alike in Congress are demanding more communication on financial risk.