KPMG sees data standards push, but no immediate reporting change

KPMG’s financial reporting, audit, regulatory and data teams are likely to feel the new federal data standards rule first, not as a filing shock but as a slow redesign of how financial information is structured, mapped and reviewed. The June 25 final rule under the Financial Data Transparency Act creates a common standards framework across the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, CFPB, FHFA, CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission and Treasury.

The immediate operational takeaway is what the rule does not do: it becomes effective October 1, 2026, but it does not change reporting requirements on that date without further agency action. That leaves KPMG teams with time, but not much room for complacency. The real pressure point is upstream, where firms build regulatory reporting processes, maintain source data and reconcile information across systems that feed oversight, audit and compliance work. For many professionals, the first changes will be in data architecture reviews, control documentation and the cleanup of manual handoffs between teams that still translate data into agency-specific formats.

The rule implements the Financial Data Transparency Act of 2022, which Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed on December 23, 2022. Regulators said the joint standards are only the first step, with most agencies still needing separate rules to apply them to specific reporting collections. That means the work for firms like KPMG will be iterative: one standards layer now, followed by agency-by-agency implementation that could alter reporting workflows across banking, securities and other financial oversight regimes.

The agencies said the final package is generally similar to the August 2024 proposal but reflects public feedback from more than 150 unique comments. The comment file drew in data standards organizations, financial services firms, trade associations, academics and governmental entities. One visible flashpoint was identification standards: the final rule does not adopt the proposed Financial Instrument Global Identifier, and instead clarifies that ISO 10962 CFI is for classification rather than identification of certain financial instruments. The American Bankers Association weighed in in its role as owner of the CUSIP system, a reminder that the rule touches existing market infrastructure, not just abstract data policy.

For KPMG professionals, the direction of travel is clear even if the near-term rulebook is not. The SEC said the standards are meant to make financial data more accessible, uniform and useful, while the Federal Reserve said the rule establishes identifiers for legal entities and other data elements. KPMG had already flagged the FDTA proposal in 2024, and this final version suggests the firm will keep treating it as a long-cycle buildout of machine-readable reporting, not a one-off compliance update.