The changing generations of electronic reporting – bye bye OSCA, hello BEEDS!

The changing generations of electronic reporting – bye bye OSCA, hello BEEDS!

For generations, it seems, VERMEG has been the leading go-to support for electronic statistical reporting for firms to the Bank of England.  And, as sure as the passing of the seasons, and the phases of the moon, it has come to pass that the generations move on again – and once again VERMEG is here for the required support as the Bank of England’s OSCA has been phased out, with last transmission as at the end of September 2022, and the transmission gateway moved to the BEEDS portal.

 

We’ve been reliably providing this transmission support for many years – typically all included without extra fees, as has been the case here in the move to BEEDS.  Indeed, I hazily remember our support back in the 1990s when electronic reporting moved from floppy discs (what’s that, say many of you?) and then on to modem (and what’s that too, say some more of you!) with dial-up file transfer, indeed from STARS (“statistical reporting system”, obviously…) to BEERS and then OSCA and now BEEDS via mandatory file formats thought XML and now XBRL.  We have been there all the way.  Throughout all these changes VERMEG has proudly supported the electronic file formats required by the Bank – as after all Bank of England reporting has been absolutely central to what we’ve done and what VERMEG still does.

 

Whilst writing about the passing of OSCA to BEEDS, it’s worth remembering that VERMEG’s regulatory reporting business has been able to offer central bank reporting as a core solution, so successfully, for each of our geographic markets too.  Just as we have supported reporting – not only transmission – but also from raw input data and though all the required computations for the Bank of England there has been support for many other regulators too – from the PRA and FCA, the European Banking Authority, the Federal Reserve and other US regulators, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and many in addition and in between.  Of course, it’s not just the gateway validations, but the form validations, or “edit checks” as the Americans call them, or user-driven sanity checks (as I call them), wrapped nowadays in industrial strength workflow and attestation, before you hit transmit and off it goes down the digital pipe to the regulator.

 

We’ve really enjoyed working cooperatively with the Bank of England over this time – it’s where our regulatory reporting business started, where our strength lies, and where our collaborative approach started and still goes on now.  Our subject matter experts have provided feedback to draft transmission formats, picked out clarifications or inconsistencies with Data Point Models etc, and worked collaboratively not the least being in this latest transition as Bank of England statistical reporting has been moved from its dedicated OSCA gateway to join the wider Bank of England Electronic Data Submission portal, BEEDS.

 

These transitions from one electronic taxonomy to another always come with challenges, for us as a vendor and for the regulator involved too.  For the move from OSCA it has followed a pattern we are good at – we liaise with the regulator, taking on board test windows and the opportunities they present, bilaterally collaborating around issues and challenges, handling last minute changes and updated releases.  We liaised all the time with our clients as they engaged with testing, with new learning curves, and received releases from VERMEG to achieve the move to the new format.  We are proud to have helped our clients make this transition from OSCA to BEEDS, without charges, and are here to support them as they go forward.

 

Will there be another transmission generation in the future?  Well of course – as sure as the passing of the seasons, and the phases of the moon – and VERMEG will be there to support you.

 

Happy memories OSCA, welcome BEEDS!

 

 

James Phillips 

Regulatory Reporting Strategy Advisor

 

If you would like to speak to VERMEG’s Regulatory Reporting expert about your challenges, contact us here.

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