FISD Europe: Panelists Call for Clarity and Improved Data Quality for Reg Reporting

Amsterdam - Poor data quality and lack of standardization will be the key barriers to firms when reporting to regulators in the format required, according to panelists at the FISD Europe conference, which was held in Amsterdam in March.

Panelists said there is not enough clarity regarding the data regulators are asking for, and that, although firms have the data, it is not in the format regulators require.

"We do definitely have the data but whether it is in the format the regulators are asking for, most of the time what the regulators are asking for is not clear to start with," said London-based Julia Sutton, global head of customer data at RBC Capital Markets. "But we will struggle to comply with all the various formats. We are taking siloed data, trying to bring it into a centralized model and then sending it out in siloed formats to various regulators," she added.

One of the main concerns remains the quality of the data reported to the regulators. According to speakers, the internal data firms must send to regulators does not always match regulatory requirements for quality, potentially hindering regulators in using the data the way they intend to.

Still, firms are getting ready for change. Sutton said RBC Capital Markets is focusing on getting the right people in the right places to ensure they are ready for the new requirements.

Meanwhile, panelists also raised concerns about how regulators will use the data. London-based Meredith Gibson, senior vice-president and counsel in the IP and O&T law group at Citi, questioned what happens to the data once the regulators receive it. "If it is going to be used for operational purposes, that would make the banks extremely worried because it raises questions such as what use the regulators are going to make of it in contexts outside of that in which the data was produced and what kind of conclusions will they draw from it," said Gibson.

London-based PJ Di Giammarino, chief executive at regulatory think-tank JWG, said that in some cases politicians and regulators have stepped in to "fix things bottom-up" rather than work through the issues with the industry to find solutions that make sense from a top-down perspective.

"There is some logic from the regulatory perspective; if it isn't working they are going to have to change the game ... However, some of the proposed changes are huge and if they (regulators) want to do things such as making regulatory data a national asset, the disruption to the industry will be high," he said, adding, however, that without a global regulator it is not clear whose national asset it will be.