Prudential Regulation Authority publishes read-out from Future Banking Data roundtable on more proportionate regulatory reporting for non-systemic banks

The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Bank of England published a read-out of a Future Banking Data roundtable with representatives of non-systemic UK banks and building societies, coordinated by UK Finance and the Building Societies Association. The discussion gathered firms’ experience of regulatory reporting and views on how a long-term approach to reporting could be made more cost-effective and proportionate. Firms supported reforms to the reporting framework, identifying the volume and complexity of interpreting requirements as a major operational burden and highlighting inconsistencies in data definitions, formats and aggregation methods across reporting obligations. Participants called for harmonisation of the data dictionary and clearer regulatory guidance to reduce ambiguity, and discussed potential benefits of more granular collections such as loan-level or transaction-level data, alongside practical concerns about implementation including the need to generate supervisory high-level metrics, setting data quality expectations and validation approaches, and delivering reform incrementally over time. Firms also noted that ad hoc collections can add recurring burden, while acknowledging the need for greater data volumes in stress, with more granular, up-to-date transaction-level data seen as a potential enabler of faster and more frequent reporting if firms can support the required process and reference data changes. The roundtable was described as part of a wider series of industry meetings the Bank is holding during the year on Future Banking Data.