Bipartisan legislation that would make information collected by financial regulators more uniform and searchable was reintroduced Tuesday by two members of the House Financial Services Committee, Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.
H.R. 4476, the Financial Transparency Act, calls for the Treasury secretary to create uniform, machine-readable data standards for information reported to financial regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the National Credit Union Association and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Regtech, the concept of applying data standards to financial regulatory information, could mean better information for investors, reduced compliance costs for businesses, "and a more efficient regulatory oversight system that can effectively identify and address bad actors," said Nick Hart, CEO of the Data Coalition, an advocacy organization, in a statement.
Similar legislation has been introduced in previous sessions of Congress with no further action, but supporters are encouraged that it is now being backed by senior members of the House committee, including ranking member Mr. McHenry and Ms. Maloney, who chairs the House Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets Subcommittee.
