Proposal Description

Digitalisation is shifting the specifications of effective measurement and analysis of the financial system towards a more global, real-time and flexible framework. It also underlines the limitations of existing regulatory reporting exercises, with the need for a new statistical paradigm aiming in theory as ensuring that “the same data serve multiple operations and measurement exercises”.
That new paradigm open entirely new perspectives for statistical compilation and analytical exercises. The focus is on collecting near-/real-time information and facilitating the straight-through transformation, compilation, and analysis of granular standardised data (comprising reported data as well as more organic data collected as a by-product of business operations).
Accelerating technological innovation and ongoing progress in regulatory frameworks should be accompanied by a long-term reflection by public authorities on the actual design of the global financial statistical infrastructure. For instance, a key priority is to achieve better and effective data standardisation, for instance through the development of a global micro data standard as recommended in the new G20 DGI. The development of adequate registers is also an important goal, with the completion of the LEI initiative as a practical first step.
These issues are high on the international agenda, as can be seen with the recent initiatives launched by the BIS innovation hub. However, the topic is often approached in incremental, technical terms with a main focus on current practices. In contrast, the “new paradigm” would call for making use of uniquely identified, digitalised financial transactions to collect data in global and secure public infrastructures. This infrastructure would enable more powerful measurement and analytical exercises that are warranted to address the scale and speed of financial developments in the new digital age. It would also reduce operational costs and risks as well as reporting burdens.