BoE Issues Update on Data Transformation Program for Financial Sector

The joint transformation program is taking a use case approach to research, design, and test solutions to address the issues the regulators and industry face. The three use cases for 2021/22 are the Quarterly Derivatives Return (DQ return), the Commercial Real Estate reporting (CRE return), and the COVID-19 impact survey focusing on the financial resilience elements (FRS return). The table below provides a status report of the key activities that have been undertaken and are still to be delivered. 

As per the communication, the Joint Transformation Program has resource commitment from participants for the "discovery and design" stage of the first use cases—ending March 2022. The leaders expect to require industry resource to progress the work beyond March 2022 and hope that as many of the current program participants as possible can stay on from March 2022 to July 2022. From July 2022 to June 2023, the aim is to move to the "delivery" stage of the phase one use cases. The program expects to ask for help from firms in testing the external-facing solutions and gathering feedback as solutions are developed. The regulators will be looking to form a group of industry users to do this and expect that the group will consist of individuals that actively use those platforms; these individuals will need to contribute 2 days a month of their time for a 12-month period from July 2022 to July 2023. Below are the planned activities for early 2022:

• In the first quarter of 2022, the participants will have moved from the "discovery" stage to "design" stage for all phase one use cases. In the "design" phase, the program explores and designs solutions to address the challenges identified in the discovery phase. It will be decided which solutions regulators and industry should take forward for further investment and implementation. Regulators will also, in consultation with industry, select and confirm the use cases for the next phase.
• The approach to scaling based on the outcomes of phase one will be a key focus for next year. The Data Standards Committee plans to commission a review on data standards, as the critical reform needed to transform data collection is the definition and adoption of common data standards.
• More frequent communication will take place, sharing timely insights and outputs from the program. Different channels to engage with the stakeholders will also be explored.

The regulators had, on December 01, 2021, announced that they are seeking input from vendors and others, to help design potential solutions to challenges they have identified for the use cases. The submissions were requested, by December 10, 2021, for the Quarterly Derivatives return (DQ) and Commercial Real Estate (CRE) reporting use cases. To ensure the continuation of work with industry in an open, collaborative, and transparent manner, the regulators will be providing regular program updates to not only share the outputs, but to also provide opportunities to be involved with this work and to give feedback. Next year, the provision of program updates is anticipated at least every two months.

Related Links

• Communication on Transformation Program
• Request for Input, December 01, 2021
• Overview of Work Program

Keywords: Europe, UK, Banking, Securities, Credit Risk, Data Collection, Form DQ, Derivatives, Reporting, Commercial Real Estate, Regtech, Data Transformation, CRE, FCA, BoE