CRS Reviews FTDA Implementation and Data Collection Issues

The Congressional Research Service ("CRS") reviewed implementation issues concerning the Financial Data Transparency Act ("FDTA") and new data standards required under the law.

The FDTA requires federal financial regulators to adopt common, machine-readable data standards to improve oversight, transparency, and risk monitoring. The FDTA directs members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council—including Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the SEC, and other regulators—to jointly issue the standards.

In its report, the CRS noted that the covered agencies published a notice of proposed rulemaking in August 2024 but had not finalized a rule as of August 2025. The CRS explained that the FDTA requires the use of a legal entity identifier, a unique code assigned to every company involved in financial transactions to make it easier for regulators to quickly identify firms and assess their risk exposure. The CRS highlighted that some agencies already use eXtensible Business Reporting Language ("XBRL"), a data-tagging system that makes financial reports machine-readable. The CRS said that while agencies said XBRL could meet the FDTA’s requirements, they have not required its exclusive use.

The CRS also outlined several hurdles to creating uniform data standards. The CRS explained that regulators collect data for varying policy purposes, often using their own definitions and reporting formats, which makes standardization difficult. The CRS cautioned that while a common system could make financial data easier to share and less costly for regulators to process, smaller institutions are worried about the added expense of changing their reporting systems. The CRS stated that the FDTA does not give regulators new authority to demand more data, but it does require them to balance the push for standardization with the need to keep compliance costs manageable under the Paperwork Reduction Act.