Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC) have introduced the Financial Transparency Act, making financial data more readily available and less opaque.
The legislators noted the measure would require financial regulatory agencies to improve how they organize data and make the data available online as open data.
“The Financial Transparency Act will finally bring financial reporting and transparency into the 21st Century – making information more easily accessible to both regulators and the public,” said Maloney, senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and previous chair of the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets. “This bill is a true win-win because it helps investors, businesses, and the government. I’ve long been an advocate for structured data in financial reporting, and I’m proud to introduce this bill with Ranking Member McHenry.”
McHenry, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, said the COVID-19 pandemic has proven the critical role technology plays in the nation’s financial system.
“It just makes sense for financial regulators to use technology to make public data more easily accessible—increasing transparency and decreasing regulatory burdens,” he said. “Streamlining data sets benefits everyone from financial institutions to tech startups, and I’m glad to join Congresswoman Maloney in reintroducing this common-sense legislation.”
Each of the country’s eight financial regulators would be required to adopt a set of data collection and dispersion standards for the information they collect under current law. Additionally, all data would be made available in an open-source format that is electronically searchable, downloadable in bulk, and without license restrictions.