Maloney & McHenry Introduce Bipartisan Financial Transparency Act
Washington,
September 25, 2019 -
Washington – Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Chair of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets, and Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, Tuesday introduced The Financial Transparency Act.
The legislation will make financial data more easily available and less opaque by requiring the U.S. financial regulatory agencies to better organize data and make this data available online as open data.
“The Financial Transparency Act will bring financial reporting into the 21st Century, will make information easier to access, and will reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens for businesses across the country,” 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 introduce this bill with Ranking Member McHenry.”
“Technology plays a key role in how Americans pay bills, save for a home, or even start a new business—it just makes sense for financial regulators to use that same technology to make public data more easily accessible,” said Rep. McHenry. “I was glad to partner with Chairwoman Maloney to introduce this commonsense solution that will streamline data sets, benefitting everyone from financial institutions to tech startups.”
Background
The Financial Transparency Act would require all eight of the country’s 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.
