The European harmonised supervisory reporting framework established by the European Banking Authority (EBA) was rolled out in 2014. It refers to the setup for receiving and processing periodic data deliveries required under EU law. The reporting data are used to analyse microprudential matters, identify macroprudential developments and support sovereign decisions. Decision-makers and analysts, at both the national and European level, need to be able to rely on the integrity and correctness of prudential data. 

As part of its mandate, operational implementation of the prudential reporting framework in Germany falls, in large part, to the Bundesbank. An essential component of the harmonised requirements relates to data quality assurance. The EBA and the European Central Bank (ECB) have formulated measurable data quality requirements for European banking supervision. Where necessary, the harmonised requirements are supplemented with arrangements geared to Germany’s specific landscape.

Criteria for measuring and verifying the data quality of ITS reports

Institutions are responsible for submitting timely, accurate and complete supervisory data. The supervisory system includes processes designed to ensure that data is of high-quality. Checks revolve around the reports submitted electronically by the institution (or the institution’s service provider, such as a data centre). Data quality is measured using the following criteria:

Timeliness

Checks are carried out to make sure that expected reports have reached supervisors in a timely manner.

Completeness

Checks are carried out to verify that all required modules and templates have been submitted. Some data points are also checked for completeness. As the reporting of certain data points may depend, in particular, on an institution’s business activities, the completeness requirements at data point level should be regarded as a technical minimum. 

Accuracy and consistency

The submitted reports must comply with the applicable reporting requirements and be accurate. This includes, amongst other things, compliance with the validation rules (XBRL and non-XBRL) as published by the EBA and additional ECB checks (see the downloads area).

Consistency checks look at the logical relationships between templates, modules and master data associated with the institution.

Stability

This criterion examines modules and templates over time, including the number of data points submitted and changes in selected business characteristics.

Plausibility

These checks use automated comparison analyses to flag results that stand out in a comparison over time or across a peer group.

The criteria are checked regularly for each reporting reference date for all reporting entities. Most of the processes are automated, with some matters being clarified bilaterally by way of correspondence. 

All reporting entities are encouraged to take a proactive approach towards making sure data meet the required standards and improving quality.