On Tuesday, May 24, the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA) (S.4295) was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The bill is sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (Democrat) and co-sponsored by Senator Mike Crapo (Republican).
The FDTA legislation directs the Department of the Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, Federal Reserve System, National Credit Union Administration, and Federal Housing Finance Agency to implement data standards developed through a joint rulemaking. In addition to these agencies, the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) is also directed to adopt data standards for information submitted to the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access (EMMA) repository.
The bill requires the collection of information reported to each covered agency by financial entities, and the data collected from covered agencies to use data standards that shall:
(A) include common identifiers for collections of information reported to covered agencies or collected on behalf of the Council, which shall include a common nonproprietary legal entity identifier that is available under an open license for all entities required to report to covered agencies; and
(B) to the extent practicable –
(i) render data fully searchable and machine-readable;
(ii) enable high quality data through schemas, with accompanying metadata documented in machine-readable taxonomy or ontology models, which clearly define the semantic meaning of the data, as defined by the underlying regulatory information collection requirements;
(iii) ensure that a data element or data asset that exists to satisfy an underlying regulatory information collection requirement be consistently identified as such in associated machine-readable metadata;
(iv) be nonproprietary or made available under an open license;
(v) incorporate standards developed and maintained by voluntary consensus standards bodies; and
(vi) use, be consistent with, and implement applicable accounting and reporting principles.”
Read the Bill.
