Trade data initiatives aim to unify regulatory reporting

Standardised data would improve systemic risk monitoring and save firms billions, say data engineers

In their struggle to modernise trade reporting, financial authorities are looking to an unexpected source for inspiration: Austria.

Here, the central bank and the country’s main lenders have created a centralised “reporting factory” called AuRep. Banks upload raw but standardised data to the platform, which auto-generates statistical, financial stability and supervisory reports to the regulator.

It’s a scheme that the Bank of England and European Central Bank, among others, are keen to repli