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AxiomSL(http://axiomsl.com/), the global leader in regulatory reporting, data and risk management solutions has successfully completed the launch of the MAS 610/1003[1] Open Taxonomy project, which is now available to all financial institutions in Singapore.
Earlier this year, the firm led a consortium of nine major banks in Singapore, together with PwC Singapore and Business Reporting -- Advisory Group (BR-AG) in an unprecedented industry initiative to streamline financial institutions' (FIs) compliance with the latest Monetary Authority Singapore (MAS) 610 reporting mandate.
David Hardoon, Chief Data Officer for MAS, recently stated that in order for standardised regulation to be implemented, there will need to be a common understanding across the industry when dealing with data definitions. A standardised data taxonomy and data model could be one option to achieve this[2]. He commented: "The Open Taxonomy is a good example of industry driven collaboration. Reducing the industry wide cost of regulatory reporting is our key objective. It is a driving factor behind our roadmap to transform our data collection process, by collecting regular data, reducing duplication and automating data submission."
Peter Tierney, CEO Asia-Pacific, AxiomSL said, "We are pleased to see the industry collaborating to create a standardised approach to a common challenge. This is a milestone as it significantly reduces the burden of reporting for FIs regardless of the reporting platform they use. We are very grateful to MAS, our partners and the nine initial participating banks for their support in enabling such an extensive project to be completed within five months."
AxiomSL's partners, PwC Singapore and BR-AG, have played an integral role in managing the Open Taxonomy project from the start up to its completion phase with PwC Singapore providing project management office for this initiative, and facilitating discussions between participating banks, the project group and MAS.
BR-AG, with their proven track record in data projects with central banks and regulatory authorities globally, drafted the MAS 610 data model and XBRL taxonomy.
The Taxonomy has condensed over 300,000 data points of the MAS 610 into 1,000 reusable business concepts grouped into 70 reporting dimensions and 80 reportable amount types. This makes it easier for FIs to understand the regulatory request and consequently how the same underlying data can be applied, reconfigured and reused in multiple reporting scenarios.
The new Taxonomy is vendor- and technology- neutral, and will enable automation and innovation in the areas of testing and analysis. This further reduces compliance related project costs and increases the quality of the data reported.
AxiomSL announced[3] earlier this year that it is fully compliant with the revised MAS 610 reporting forms, and it will offer the existing and revised MAS 610 reporting templates to all clients. The revised MAS 610 mandates are more complex and granular in terms of the frequency and the quality of data collected. The increase in data points collected is 8000% more than what was previously required. The Taxonomy will organise these data fields and outline the relationships between each of them.
Thangaraja Nadaraja, Risk Assurance Director at PwC Singapore said: "We are pleased to be part of the taxonomy initiative, which is the first to be shared and made open to the industry. We hope that the intention of a common taxonomy will bring about more clarity in regulatory reporting requirements, which will in turn result in more consistency in reporting and better comparison of statistical analysis by the regulator."
Michal Skopowski, Chief Business Advisor, BR-AG said, "This groundbreaking project for the banks in Singapore is a unique opportunity for the entire financial sector -- bringing together the best global practices in the field of financial data modeling for supervisory purposes and the initiative taken by the supervised entities themselves to manage regulatory requirements in the most effective way."
[1]MAS Notice 610 covers financial and statistical reporting for banks in Singapore, except for merchant banks, which are covered by MAS Notice 1003. As the two Notices as broadly the same, they are referred to collectively as MAS 610 herein
[2]Central Banking, Artificial intelligence: The future of regulation? Rachel King, May 10, 2018.
[3]AxiomSL's Regulatory Reporting Solution for Singapore Is Fully Compliant With The Revised MAS 610/1003 Reporting Forms
