Establishing data standards for the collection of information reported to federal financial institution regulators by financial entities under their jurisdiction is the aim of a joint notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) issued by the agencies Friday.
The rule was proposed by the federal banking agencies, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Comments are due in 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.
According to the NPR, it would establish data standards to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across the eight agencies. “Final standards established pursuant to this rulemaking will later be adopted for certain collections of information in separate rulemakings by the agencies or through other actions taken by the agencies,” the NPR states.
The proposal was issued under the requirements of the Financial Data Transparency
Act of 2022, the agencies noted.
Under the FDTA, the agencies are required to adopt standards that must (to the extent possible):
- Render data fully searchable and machine-readable;
- Enable high quality data through schemas, with accompanying metadata documented in machine-readable taxonomy or ontology models, which clearly define the semantic meaning of the data, as defined by the underlying regulatory information collection requirements;
- Ensure that a data element or data asset that exists to satisfy an underlying regulatory information collection requirement be consistently identified as such in associated machine-readable metadata;
- Be nonproprietary or made available under an open license;
- Incorporate standards developed and maintained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; and
- Use, be consistent with, and implement applicable accounting and reporting principles.
The law also requires the agencies to consult with other federal departments and agencies and multi-agency initiatives responsible for Federal data standards15 and to seek to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC).