OFR Director Describes "Initiative to Reduce Regulatory Reporting Burden"

Office of Financial Research Director Richard Berner outlined an agency "initiative to reduce the regulatory reporting burden." At a Financial Data Summit hosted by the Data Transparency Coalition, he described how the initiative is aligned with efforts to improve data scope, data quality, and data accessibility. Mr. Berner argued that improving financial data, data quality, synchrony and accessibility complemented the goal of reducing the financial reporting burden. He stated that there were "many paths to achieving those complementary goals, including the use of data standards, best practices in data collection, and more extensive data sharing."

Further, Mr. Berner spoke of the need for regulators to coordinate their data collection efforts, and to rely on each other for information, rather than increasing the burden on firms. Mr. Berner noted that because of current uncoordinated efforts, reporting "duplication, overlap, and inefficiency represent a burden, a cost, and a source of frustration" for firms in the industry. Mr. Berner applauded the SEC's decision to propose amendments that are intended to improve the quality and accessibility of public company data submissions by requiring the use of eXtensible Business Reporting Language. He called on industry participants to partner to improve data quality and reduce duplication.