The Federal Reserve Board on Friday joined eight other agencies in asking for public comment on a rule that would create data standards for information collected and submitted to financial regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Treasury Department, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Housing Finance Agency, National Credit Union Administration and Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a joint rulemaking to promote the “interoperability of financial regulatory data,” as required by the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022. The act directs federal financial agencies to issue individual rules adopting joint data standards for the collection of certain information. The agencies also are required to consult with each of the other departments and agencies. Once the final standards are established, the agencies will each issue separate rules and adopt the data collection standards. The agencies are expected to work together on the adoption of the established joint standards and to monitor developments related to data standards. “The field of data standards, data transmission, schemas and taxonomies is rich with well-established practices and is also rapidly evolving, including with proposals to extend existing standards beyond their existing use and with development of new standards,” according to the 74-page notice of proposed rulemaking. The Federal Data Transparency Act allows each agency to tailor data standards when the standards are adopted. Each agency in its rulemaking also must seek to “minimize disruptive changes” to small entities and may “reduce any unjustified burden on smaller entities affected by the regulations. The regulators also may adopt other data standards beyond the standard issued jointly. However, no new information collection requirements are required by the act. Comments on the data standards proposal are due 60 days after the notices from each agency are published in the Federal Register.
