Machine-readable Pillar 3 disclosure

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has issued a consultation on Machine-readable Pillar 3 disclosure. The consultation proposes to make the data disclosed by banks (so-called Pillar 3 disclosures) available in a machine-readable format. Pillar 3 disclosures by internationally active banks under the Basel Committee's standards are an important source of their key risk metrics. Most banks, however, currently publish their disclosures in PDF format only, which makes it difficult to aggregate, process and compare data across banks.

To make Pillar 3 disclosure data more accessible, the Committee is proposing that they should be made available in standardised machine-readable formats across its member jurisdictions. The proposed standard would introduce a requirement and technical specifications to produce machine-readable quantitative Pillar 3 disclosures, without changing the underlying disclosure requirements for banks. National supervisors would decide whether banks should publish machine-readable Pillar 3 disclosures on their own websites or via a centralised data repository. 

These proposed additions to the current disclosure standard were developed by the Committee's Disclosure and Quantitative Impact Study groups.