Foreword

Carolyn Rogers

While the terms suptech (supervisory technology) and regtech (regulatory technology) are new, the idea of leveraging technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of supervision, or, in the case of banks, the reliability and cost of compliance, is not. Banking and supervising banks are both data-intensive activities. Improving the collection, storage and use of that data has long been a focus of banks and their supervisors.

In fact, one of the key global policy initiatives stemming from the global financial crisis (GFC) was focused precisely on improving bank’s data management. “Principles for Effective Risk Data Aggregation and Risk Reporting” (known as “BCBS 239”) was finalised by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in 2013, and while it may not share the profile of other post-crisis policy initiatives, it is arguably equally important. That is because one of the important lessons from the GFC was that banks’ data architectures and data management strategies were not up to the task. While banks collected and stored vast amounts of data, most could not aggregate exposures and identify concentrations of risk. This meant risks were not reported to