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Reps. McHenry & Maloney Celebrate Passage of the Financial Transparency Act

Washington, Oct 25 -

Today, Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, and  Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Senior Member of the House Financial Services Committee and previous Chair of the Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets, applauded the passage of H.R. 2989, the Financial Transparency Act, in the House with a bipartisan vote of 400-19.

This bipartisan legislation will make financial data more easily available and less opaque by requiring U.S. financial regulatory agencies to better organize data and make this data available online as open data.

“Technology plays a critical role in our financial system,” said Rep. McHenry. “It just makes sense for financial regulators to use that same technology to make public data more easily accessible. Streamlining data sets benefits everyone from financial institutions to tech startups by increasing transparency and decreasing regulatory burdens. I want to thank Congresswoman Maloney for her partnership and work on this important legislation.”

“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 Rep. Maloney. “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 have worked on this bill with Ranking Member McHenry.”

The full bill text can be found here.

Background

The Financial Transparency Act would require financial regulators to adopt a set of data collection and dispersion standards for the information they collect under current law, including the adoption of electronic forms to replace paper-based forms.

All data would be made available in an open-source format that is electronically searchable, downloadable in bulk and without license restrictions.

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