Overview of the Transformation Plan and joint transformation programme

The Bank of England (the Bank) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working together, and with industry, to improve the data collection process for both regulators and firms. 

In February 2021, the two regulators published a Transformation Plan to address the issues with data collection. The plan set out the vision that ‘Regulators get the data they need to fulfil their mission, at the lowest possible cost to industry’ with three key areas central to achieving this: defining and adopting common data standards; modernising reporting instructions; and integrating reporting.

To help deliver these reforms the Bank and FCA set up a ‘joint transformation programme’: a collaboration between the Bank, FCA and industry. Industry made several specific recommendations through the lens of use cases. The latest industry recommendations for the phase two use cases have been published today. 

For more information about the programme, please visit the Transforming Data Collection website. 

Five outcomes to ensure regulators get the data they need at the lowest cost

Building on the learning from the joint transformation programme, the Bank and FCA are now planning several projects over the next 18 months to improve data collections. They contribute to five outcomes:

1. data collections meet and are proportionate to regulators’ needs;
2. effective and efficient internal processes for creating data collections;
3. efficient processes and support for meeting regulatory obligations;
4. clear and consistent data definitions; and
5. modern systems to underpin data collections.

Workstreams to deliver the five outcomes

The Bank and FCA are undertaking a range of specific workstreams to achieve these outcomes. The workstreams have been motivated by the recommendations from industry on how to improve data reporting identified through the joint transformation programme. 

The United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union means that there is an opportunity to reconsider what data is collected through regular regulatory returns, the approach to collecting it, and to ensure the necessary capabilities are in place.

The new capabilities and insights will, in general, be applied to new data collections and during the introduction of new collection processes, or future reviews of existing collections. This will allow us to deploy the new capabilities built through TDC iteratively over time.  

The regulators are taking several steps to have a more streamlined and efficient set of collections and processes. Ongoing initiatives, namely reviews of FCA data collections and the Bank’s Banking Data Review (BDR), will ensure data collections meet and are proportionate to regulators’ needs, including cuts to templates that are not needed and targeted new collections to address clear gaps in regular reporting.

In addition, the Bank and FCA will be making improvements to deliver effective and efficient internal processes for creating new data collections, as well as launching several projects to deliver efficient processes and support for meeting regulatory obligations, developing options for delivering streamlined interfaces for firms. This will initially include investigating options for delivering a Single Firm Portal for firms to interact with different systems such as RegData and CONNECT, and a Firm Communications Portal for reporting queries.

The Bank and FCA will also be undertaking work with industry to deliver clear and consistent data definitions. This project will be delivered in close collaboration with the Industry Data Standards Committee (IDSC), a new committee that will be responsible for issuing industry recommendations on data standards, which regulators will consider for implementation.

Finally, the Bank and FCA will build modern systems that support data collections, including work to establish a shared technology roadmap. 

Read the Bank and FCA’s joint response and future strategy

Read the recommendations in full