On 29 February 2024, there was published a Commission Staff working document which provides an overview of the progress achieved to date on the main policy initiatives and technical workstreams contributing to the implementation of the December 2021 Communication ‘Strategy on supervisory data in EU financial services’.
Background
In its December 2021 Communication, Strategy on supervisory data in EU financial services, the European Commission (Commission) set out its objective to modernise EU supervisory reporting, while minimising the aggregate reporting burden for all relevant parties.
This aligns with the Commission’s broader objectives to reduce administrative burden and rationalise reporting requirements, as well as develop a regulatory framework that is more suited to competitiveness and growth, as set out in the Communication on long-term competitiveness. The implementation of the strategy is a long-term project carried out in cooperation with the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) and other authorities in charge of the technical work to define and implement reporting requirements. As such, the progress report now published provides an overview of the progress achieved to date on the main policy initiatives and the technical work to implement the strategy.
The strategy’s targeted improvements in sectoral reporting frameworks proposed by the Commission in recent reviews of legislation means the Commission will also use other upcoming legislative reviews to propose additional sectoral improvements. Additionally, the Commission’s broad mandates for the ESAs applies to key pieces of legislation for preparing comprehensive reports on how to improve consistency and achieve further integration of reporting within their respective sectors.
A further key feature of the strategy is its gradual and pragmatic approach. This relates to the targeted measures aimed at delivering improvements and strengthening more integrated reporting within the different financial sectors, as well as measures that apply across sectors and deliver improvements on the key building blocks.
The key building blocks of the strategy are:
- Data standardisation: addressed through workshops with experts from the ESAs and industry. Further progress was also achieved in advancing the use of standard identifiers, including the legal entity identifier.
- Data sharing between authorities in EU financial services.
- Improving the design of reporting requirements with a comprehensive set of internal guidelines.
- In the area of governance, the Commission’s proposal amending the ESAs and European Systemic Risk Board regulations seeks to strengthen the cross-sectoral coordination of ESAs on reporting and data collection.
- The progress achieved in the implementation of the strategy will facilitate the application of new technologies to ensure efficient reporting and enable data-driven supervision.
In addition to the specific actions taken by the Commission, the strategy has provided backing and focus for multiple projects, including those of the ESAs.
However, the progress report indicates that significant work still needs to be done, as progress on some building blocks has been more challenging and slower than expected, also given resource constraints and complexities in the legal and institutional set-up. The implementation of the strategy is therefore expected to take several more years.
The next steps include the final adoption of the Commission’s legislative proposals by the co-legislators, reports by the ESAs setting out further measures to advance on integrated reporting and technical work in all the financial services sectors to realise the practical impact of the measures taken to date.