Inman

Federal banking agencies get streamlined

Banks and software vendors will be able to kick the tires on the Central Data Repository starting early this summer, the Federal Reserve Board said Friday.

The CDR is an Internet-based system that streamlines how federal banking agencies collect, validate and distribute financial data submitted to banks in quarterly call reports. Banks won’t have to submit call report data to CDR until October 2005, but can test the system this summer.

The CDR was originally scheduled to roll out in October 2004, but software vendors, trade associations and banks in a focus group for the project, the Financial Institutions Focus Group, asked for more time to test it out.

Beginning this summer, banks will be enrolling and testing their ability to access the CDR system. Software vendors will be working with the agencies to prepare for the final test of system readiness in August. Full system implementation will take place in October.

Through the use of new open data exchange standards (known as “eXtensible Business Reporting Language,” or XBRL), the CDR system will facilitate faster delivery of Call Report data. All users of the data – financial institutions, the public, and banking regulators – are expected to benefit from the improved, timelier flow of financial institution information.

This initiative – the Call Report Modernization Project – is an interagency effort under the auspices of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC).

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