Comments Requested: Proposed Rule on the Financial Data Transparency Act
NASACT has been closely monitoring actions concerning the Financial Data Transparency Act, or FDTA. FDTA was passed into law as part of the negotiated National Defense Authorization Act at the end of 2022. The act seeks to modernize the collection and dissemination of financial data by federal financial regulators by requiring information submitted to the agencies to be in a machine-readable format.
Of note for NASACT members is the requirement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issue data standards for information that municipal securities issuers provide to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. State and local governments that issue bonds are required to provide both primary and continuing disclosure to the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access, or EMMA. Financial data including annual comprehensive financial reports are included in the municipal market information submitted to EMMA. It should be noted that how the law is ultimately implemented regarding municipal market information will be determined by the SEC when they undertake their own specific rulemaking after the issuance of the joint rule. The proposed joint rule was published in the Federal Register for comment today and establishes technical standards for data submitted to certain financial regulatory agencies named in the statute including the SEC.
NASACT is requesting your comment on the questions posed in the joint rule, but more specifically, to those posed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, which are more specific to the municipal market. Your comments will be extremely helpful in identifying issues in advance of the more specific rulemaking to be promulgated by the SEC at a later date. Below is a summary of the proposed rule. Click for the proposed rule and for the questions posed both in the proposed rule and by Commissioner Hester Peirce.
Please submit your comments by Tuesday, October 1 so that we may craft an association response and submit the letter through our own internal approval process.
We also encourage you to submit comments directly to the SEC by October 21. Your comments can be submitted through the regulations.gov portal.
Questions may be directed to NASACT's Washington Director Cornelia Chebinou.
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED JOINT RULE
The recently proposed joint standards seek to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across federal financial agencies by establishing common identifiers for entities, geographic locations, dates, and certain products and currencies. Specifically, the joint standards propose utilizing the following common identifiers:
The schema or taxonomy for data transmission, structuring, and formatting follows what was set out in the original FDTA statute. The joint rule does not provide a specific data schema or taxonomy format, only that the schema or taxonomy:
Further, the joint proposal adopts the definition of “collection of information” by using the Paperwork Reduction Act definition. PRA defines collection of information as:
The obtaining, causing to be obtained, soliciting, or requiring the disclosure to third parties or the public, of facts or opinions by or for an agency, regardless of form or format, calling for either—
The joint proposal also establishes the Legal Entity Identifier, or LEI, as a common entity identifier. The LEI is a global identifier standard, developed by the International Organization for Standardization, that uniquely and unambiguously identifies a legal entity.
The proposal also designates as an identifier of financial instruments the Financial Instrument Global Identifier, or FIGI. The rule does not require the CUSIP which stands for Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures. A CUSIP number identifies most financial instruments, including U.S. government and municipal bonds, and is currently used by issue and other municipal market participants in reporting to EMMA.
Of note for NASACT members is the requirement that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issue data standards for information that municipal securities issuers provide to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. State and local governments that issue bonds are required to provide both primary and continuing disclosure to the MSRB’s Electronic Municipal Market Access, or EMMA. Financial data including annual comprehensive financial reports are included in the municipal market information submitted to EMMA. It should be noted that how the law is ultimately implemented regarding municipal market information will be determined by the SEC when they undertake their own specific rulemaking after the issuance of the joint rule. The proposed joint rule was published in the Federal Register for comment today and establishes technical standards for data submitted to certain financial regulatory agencies named in the statute including the SEC.
NASACT is requesting your comment on the questions posed in the joint rule, but more specifically, to those posed by Commissioner Hester Peirce, which are more specific to the municipal market. Your comments will be extremely helpful in identifying issues in advance of the more specific rulemaking to be promulgated by the SEC at a later date. Below is a summary of the proposed rule. Click for the proposed rule and for the questions posed both in the proposed rule and by Commissioner Hester Peirce.
Please submit your comments by Tuesday, October 1 so that we may craft an association response and submit the letter through our own internal approval process.
We also encourage you to submit comments directly to the SEC by October 21. Your comments can be submitted through the regulations.gov portal.
Questions may be directed to NASACT's Washington Director Cornelia Chebinou.
SUMMARY OF THE PROPOSED JOINT RULE
The recently proposed joint standards seek to promote interoperability of financial regulatory data across federal financial agencies by establishing common identifiers for entities, geographic locations, dates, and certain products and currencies. Specifically, the joint standards propose utilizing the following common identifiers:
- ISO 4914 – Financial services – Unique product identifier (UPI).
- ISO 10962 – Securities and related financial instruments – Classification of financial instruments (CFI) code.
- Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) established by the Object Management Group.
- ISO 8601 – Date and time format, using the Basic format option.
- U.S. Postal Service Abbreviations as published in Appendix B of Publication 28, Postal Addressing Standards.
- Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes (GENC) standard (country codes).
- ISO 4217 – Currency Codes.
The schema or taxonomy for data transmission, structuring, and formatting follows what was set out in the original FDTA statute. The joint rule does not provide a specific data schema or taxonomy format, only that the schema or taxonomy:
- Render data fully searchable and machine-readable.
- Enable high-quality data through schemas, with accompanying metadata, which clearly define the semantic meaning of the data.
- Ensure that data that exists to satisfy an underlying regulatory information requirement be consistently identified as such in machine-readable metadata.
- Be nonproprietary or available under an open license.
Further, the joint proposal adopts the definition of “collection of information” by using the Paperwork Reduction Act definition. PRA defines collection of information as:
The obtaining, causing to be obtained, soliciting, or requiring the disclosure to third parties or the public, of facts or opinions by or for an agency, regardless of form or format, calling for either—
(i) Answers to identical questions posed to, or identical reporting or recordkeeping requirements imposed on, ten or more persons, other than agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States; or
(ii) Answers to questions posed to agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States which are to be used for general statistical purposes.
(ii) Answers to questions posed to agencies, instrumentalities, or employees of the United States which are to be used for general statistical purposes.
The joint proposal also establishes the Legal Entity Identifier, or LEI, as a common entity identifier. The LEI is a global identifier standard, developed by the International Organization for Standardization, that uniquely and unambiguously identifies a legal entity.
The proposal also designates as an identifier of financial instruments the Financial Instrument Global Identifier, or FIGI. The rule does not require the CUSIP which stands for Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures. A CUSIP number identifies most financial instruments, including U.S. government and municipal bonds, and is currently used by issue and other municipal market participants in reporting to EMMA.