Abstract

In 2006, mathematician Clive Humby coined the phrase “data is the new oil.” Today, data fuels business actions, customer experience, new healthcare discoveries and fundamentals in every conceivable industry. Regulators, and among them central banks naturally participate in this trend. They need to demonstrate that the already huge and growing demand for data is processed in a cost-efficient way, that brings collective benefits.
While the new trend involves a new approach of all the steps in the central banks data value chain, this paper concentrates on data collection and data sharing. Renewing this part of the process implies to create a new relationship with “reporting agents”. From regulated entities, they become partners in building the supply of data to users. This acknowledges their experience in the structure and content of their own information systems as well as their experience in data modelling and data management. This should not imply that they would define the what of regulatory demands. The borderline is thin and a key topic.
Another key aspect is the collaboration between authorities in order to reduce reporting burden. These arise from overlaps in the reporting, but even more crucially from diverging definitions for no valuable reasons. Collaboration also involves data sharing among authorities to avoid duplicate reporting and full transparency with reporting agents on the use and sharing of the confidential data they provide to each authority. Communicating with reporting agents on this collaboration is key to manage their expectation and associating them to the process when appropriate.
This paper will share the initiatives that the ECB is contributing to in these different areas, starting from the dialogue with the industry on the BIRD data model that can onboard statistical and supervisory data needs. The new ESCB Integrated Reporting Framework (IReF) project is mentioned, as a key initiative to standardise the statistical reporting of banking data in the euro area. The IReF process is deeply benefiting from the active involvement of the banking industry in the definition of how to best structure the reporting. The paper also elaborates on the collaboration among the ECB, the European banking Authority, the Single Resolution Board and the European Commission to set a process for the integration of banks’ reporting across domains and data sharing. These authorities have worked together in 2022 on proposals for setting a Joint Bank Reporting Committee and organising the work on a common data dictionary. A particular focus will be made on the participation of the industry in the future process. For such collaboration to gain full efficiency, the process for data sharing has to be made more transparent to reporting agents on the uses of their data and reflections on a possibly minor improvement of the legal setting should be considered.