On 29 February 2024, the European Commission published a report on the implementation of its strategy on supervisory data in EU financial services. It takes stock of the Commission’s progress when it comes to modernising EU supervisory reporting.
A steady strategy contributing to competitiveness
The implementation of the strategy is a long-term project carried out in cooperation with the European supervisory authorities (ESAs) and other authorities, and also drawing on industry expertise. The aim is to strike a balance between – on the one hand – reducing burden, improving data quality and availability, and – on the other hand – ensuring predictability and being mindful of the costs involved in the transition process. This aligns with the Commission’s broader objectives of rationalising reporting requirements and creating a regulatory framework that contributes to long-term competitiveness.
The strategy aims to improve efficiency and enhance integrated reporting within and across different financial sectors such as banking, insurance and pensions, funds and markets. It involves both sectoral measures and more extensive horizontal improvements that apply across financial services sectors and focus on data standardisation, data sharing and reuse, the design of reporting requirement, and governance. All of these enable a more effective and efficient use of modern technologies to comply with reporting requirements.
Progress on the building blocks of the strategy
The Commission has proposed targeted improvements in sectoral reporting frameworks through recent legislative reviews (in banking, insurance, pensions, investment funds and markets) and plans to introduce additional improvements in upcoming reviews. Moreover, it has instructed the ESAs to prepare comprehensive reports on how to improve consistency and further streamline reporting within their respective sectors.
In terms of data standardisation, the ESAs have been tasked with proposing improvements across reporting frameworks. The Commission is also facilitating the development of a common data dictionary that defines the data to be reported. Additionally, efforts have been made to increase the use of standard identifiers.
Work also progressed on facilitating data sharing between authorities and promoting the reuse of data to avoid duplicative data requests. This includes targeted data-sharing measures in sectoral legislation as well as measures allowing horizontal, non-sector specific sharing. This was proposed in amendments to the ESA and European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB) Regulations, to further facilitate the sharing of information between authorities. In the same proposal, the Commission addressed the improvement of the design of reporting requirements, ensuring their regular review and streamlining. In addition, a comprehensive set of internal guidelines has been developed. Steps have also been taken to simplify the content of implementing technical standards on reporting by excluding detailed reporting templates and instructions, and publishing those separately in a form that relies on modern technologies.
As regards governance, the Commission’s amendments to the ESA and ESRB Regulations mentioned above also aim at strengthening cross-sectoral coordination on reporting and data collection. In the banking sector, efforts are underway to improve the integration of bank reporting for supervisory, statistical, and resolution purposes, by setting up a Joint Bank Reporting Committee.
The progress achieved so far complements and reinforces other Commission initiatives and should pave the way for new technologies that ensure efficient reporting and enable data-driven supervision. The EU Supervisory Digital Finance Academy aims at improving skills and knowledge required for EU and national authorities. The EU digital finance platform and its data hub support open collaboration between authorities and industry.
The way forward
While considerable progress has been made, there is still work to be done. This includes reaching an agreement on the pending Commission legislative proposals. Significant technical implementation work is also still needed for the initiatives to deliver improvements on the ground, so these initiatives have the desired practical impact and burden reduction.
The progress report will be presented and discussed during a workshop with stakeholders on 21 March. The debate will focus on the priorities for the coming years of implementation. More operational and technological aspects will also be covered.
For the most recent updates on the implementation of the strategy, please visit the supervisory data collection website.
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