US regulators establish joint data standards under the FDTA
A landmark moment for digital reporting in the US: on 8 June the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a final rule establishing joint data standards under the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022 (FDTA), the legislation requiring nine federal financial regulators to make their regulatory data interoperable. Eight further agencies – including the Federal Reserve Board, the Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) – have established or are expected to act on establishing the same standards.
The joint standards set out seven common, non-proprietary identifiers, available under open licence and free of charge. Most notably, the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) is confirmed as the common entity identifier, alongside International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards for product identifiers, financial instrument classification, dates and currencies, plus US Postal Service and Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes (GENC) location standards.
Rather than mandating specific technologies, the principles-based standard for data transmission and schema and taxonomy formats requires that data be fully searchable and machine-readable, defined through schemas with metadata that clearly convey semantic meaning, consistently identified against the underlying regulatory requirement, and non-proprietary or openly licensed. Any format meeting these criteria – the rule cites eXtensible Markup Language as an example – is permitted, allowing agencies to adopt new open formats as they emerge.
SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said consistent data collection will both “ease burdens for financial institutions and make data more accessible to investors.” The joint rule takes effect on 1 October 2026, with agency-specific rulemakings, where the real implementation detail will be decided, still to come. We’ll be watching closely.
