Submit once, use everywhere: The FDTA & structured business reporting are redefining compliance

The Financial Data Transparency Act and structured business reporting are shifting from static, form-based filings to standardized, machine-readable data, enabling greater efficiency, transparency, and strategic opportunities for both regulators and industry–> full article available at https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en-us/posts/technology/structured-business-reporting/

Financial reporting is at a turning point as regulatory consistency supersedes a check-the-box mentality. For decades, compliance in the United States has centered on paper-defined, form-based filings that were systemically encoded by software. Paper and e-form documents were submitted to regulators, parsed by analysts, and stored in disparate systems within industry and oversight agencies. This approach is quickly losing relevance, however, due to an explosion of data, new intelligent solutions, and a need for one version of the truth.

The vision of financial data modernization is not new, but its transformative speed and benefits are accelerating both internationally and domestically. For the US, the Financial Data Transparency Act (FDTA), signed into law in 2022, represents the first step to achieving structured business reporting, which was originally proposed in 2017. Each of these public-private initiatives represents sweeping mandates to transition from static reports to machine-readable, standardized data that in turn reduces compliance burdens, improves data quality, and in the long-term, reduces costs.

International data standardization and regulatory consistency directives began decades ago, and they represent lessons learned for domestic policy makers. FDTA legislation and structured business reporting designs represent the end of static reporting and the beginning of data-driven regulatory oversight. Both public agency and private industry leadership can treat the FDTA and structured business reporting as another regulatory mandate, or they can embrace it as the building blocks for financial data modernization in which compliance consistency can be a driver of efficiency, transparency, and competitive advantage.