Greater automation of data collection and intervention based on data analysis will become two of the key drivers of the FCA’s regulatory strategy over the next five years, the watchdog said today.

The FCA and Bank of England today announced proposals for data reforms across the UK financial sector which will see much more emphasis given to the collection of data from regulated firms.

A new Gabriel reporting system for regulated firms to provide recent data on adviser businesses is already under development and is part of the ‘refreshed’ data strategy.

Other key areas for change at the FCA over the next five years include:

• Projects and Key Business Initiatives in every division 
• Changes to FCA culture and skills to fully exploit data and deliver improvements
• A new FCA data operating model 
• Improved Central Data Services 
• New Data Management and Analytical tools 
• Core enabling technology platforms to fully harness the power of data

The FCA and the Bank of England plan to develop their data and analytics capabilities due to a rising number of regulated firms and limited scope to increase resources to deal with this.

The FCA said: “We are regulating an ever increasing number of firms. This means we must do more with the same resources. We have a duty to regulate and deliver value for money.  Automation and data-driven approaches are essential to our approach.”

“Our vision is to harness the power of data and advanced analytics to support our mission, to make us more efficient and effective, and to ultimately transform how we carry out financial regulation in the UK.”

The FCA’s refreshed Data Strategy proposals set out a transformation plan to become a “highly data-driven regulator,” said the body.

It will use the data and “advanced analytics and automation techniques” to deepen its understanding of how markets function and allow the FCA to efficiently “predict, monitor and respond to” firm and market issues.

The approach includes data science units being established in parts of the organisation and exploitation of new opportunities arising from the FCA’s migration to cloud-based IT infrastructure. 

Christopher Woolard, executive director of strategy and competition at the FCA, said:

“Advances in technology are changing the nature of the firms and markets we regulate. Our Data Strategy provides a clear path for us to ensure we have the necessary skills and processes in place to remain at the forefront of this change.”

The FCA says it wants to make uses of advances in technology since its first data strategy was published in 2013.