FCA and Bank of England make data reform proposals

The FCA’s data strategy sets out plans to become a “highly data-driven regulator”. It outlines the regulator’s focus on the use of advanced analytics and automation techniques to deepen its understanding of how markets function. This, it said, will allow it to efficiently predict, monitor and respond to firm and market issues.

Alongside that, the FCA will pursue a broader transformation, investing in skills and new ways of working to enable it to better understand and use data and innovative technology. The approach includes data science units being established in selected parts of the organisation and exploitation of new opportunities arising from the FCA’s migration to cloud-based IT infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England has published a discussion paper, Transforming data collection from the UK financial sector, to improve the timeliness and effectiveness of data collection from firms across the financial system.

The bank’s paper marks the first step of a review announced in its response to Huw van Steenis’ Future of Finance report, which recommended that the bank develop a new digital data strategy.

The discussion paper sets out the issues facing the current data collection system and identifies and explores a series of potential solutions, to prompt feedback from and further discussion with industry.

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said: “Advances in technology are changing the nature of the firms and markets we regulate. Our Data Strategy provides a clear path for us to ensure we have the necessary skills and processes in place to remain at the forefront of this change.

“In-keeping with our mission, a data-driven approach to regulation allows us to anticipate harms before they crystallise, better understand the effect on consumers of changing business models and to regulate an increasing number of firms efficiently and effectively.”

Sam Woods, deputy governor for prudential regulation and chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority, said: “Having the right data is vital to our role as a regulator, and to the ability of banks and insurers to manage themselves effectively.

“Recent developments in technology should allow us to improve how we collect data from firms, making reporting more timely, more effective and less burdensome for firms. This is potentially a major change so we want to work closely with firms to make sure we get it right over the next decade – our discussion paper starts that process by setting out the strategic issues in order to stimulate a debate about the way forward.”

The FCA’s director of supervision – retail and authorisations, Jonathan Davidson, is a keynote speaker at the Credit Summit on March 19. To book your ticket, visit the Credit Summit website.