13 Nov AxiomSL Credited for Outstanding Collaboration on MAS 610 Open Taxonomy
Singapore/Hong Kong, 14 November 2018 – AxiomSL has been awarded Outstanding Collaborative Initiative for the MAS 610 Open Taxonomy in the inaugural Regulation Asia Awards for Excellence 2018 at a ceremony in Singapore on 13 November 2018. In March 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revised its standards on the data collection requirements for MAS 610/1003 regulatory returns, increasing the number of data points financial institutions need to report from about 4,000 to over 300,000, across 67 reports. The MAS allowed financial institutions 24 months to implement the new standards. Given the magnitude of change and sheer volume of data points that made preparation for the revised standard difficult, AxiomSL pursued a broader, more collaborative approach to address the challenge. AxiomSL convened a diverse group of financial institutions to work together on defining a data taxonomy to simplify and streamline MAS 610 compliance reporting. The initiative included two D-SIBs, seven international banks including four G-SIBS, PwC Singapore and BR-AG. Over multiple iterations, more than 400 comments from banks, several workshops and meetings, and 20 revisions, the participants found common ground, and AxiomSL was able to announce the completion of the MAS 610 Open Taxonomy in June 2018. The Taxonomy distills more than 300,000 data points required into 1,000 reusable business concepts, grouped into 67 reporting dimensions and 65 reportable amount-types, achieving a shared understanding of the MAS data ask for the industry. The creation of common data relationships that describe and validate data points, establish relationships between them, and enable automatic generation and maintenance of derived data points provide a level of consistency that would not have been possible without a collaborative approach, noted one judge. The Taxonomy is available to all financial institutions in Singapore regardless of the reporting platform or technology used, amplifying the benefits of the initiative and passing on cost-savings to the industry as a whole. AxiomSL has successfully trained over 200 professionals on the Taxonomy since the project’s completion in June earlier this year.