European supervisors are quietly dismantling the template-driven reporting model that has defined compliance for decades, and firms that fail to grasp the scale of the shift risk being left with legacy architecture unfit for an AI-enabled future.
According to Regnology, while the steady stream of announcements from the EBA, ESMA, EIOPA, the ECB and the SRB may appear disconnected, a closer look reveals a coordinated direction of travel built on three strategic pillars: simplification, standardisation and integration.
Regnology recently delved into the rise of machine-readable and AI-enabled regulatory reporting.
Both regulators and regulated entities are abandoning legacy, report-centric pipelines in favour of a data-centric paradigm in which information is treated as a strategic, reusable asset. These architectural shifts also lay the groundwork for SupTech advances and AI-assisted regulatory processes, since high-quality, standardised, machine-readable data is an essential prerequisite for effective AI adoption.
The first major theme is the principle of “collect once, use many”. European authorities are tackling duplicative reporting and downstream reconciliation at an architectural level rather than through piecemeal template tweaks.
The European Banking Authority’s simplification proposals integrate requirements across FINREP, operational risk, liquidity risk, ESG, supervisory benchmarking, stress-testing and selected Pillar 3 disclosures, aiming to limit overlapping data collections and build a more stable, reusable foundation. It is not all reduction, however; harmonised requirements for third-country branches may initially expand reporting scope.
ESMA offers perhaps the boldest example. Its “report once” proposal has identified up to €1bn in potential annual savings by structurally simplifying transaction reporting across MiFIR, EMIR and SFTR through shared standards and common data structures. EIOPA, meanwhile, has completed its Solvency II review, estimating a 22% reduction in data points for solo undertakings, with quarterly templates cut by 26% and annual templates by 30%.
The second theme is a push for granular, high-quality, readily accessible data. The ECB’s Integrated Reporting Framework (IReF) replaces country-specific statistical templates such as AnaCredit, BSI, MIR and SHS with a single harmonised euro-area framework, with a pilot phase due in 2030 and official reporting in 2031. The SRB is following suit on crisis preparedness, requiring banks to build structured valuation data repositories, a Valuation Data Index and valuation playbooks by 2029, complemented by operational guidance on liquidity and funding in resolution.
The third theme is the emergence of a common language. The Data Point Model (DPM) standard connects reporting templates with clearly defined business concepts and validation logic, making requirements machine-readable.
Following DPM 2.0 in 2023, the EBA, ECB and EIOPA formed the DPM Alliance in 2024 to jointly govern the standard. This structured foundation fuels both SupTech capabilities, such as ML-based anomaly detection and predictive risk modelling, and next-generation RegTech, including agentic AI workflows subject to appropriate governance and human oversight.
All eyes now turn to the EBA’s forthcoming DPM 2.1 update. The strategic direction is clear: success requires targeted investment in a robust, well-governed, reusable data foundation, not merely updated templates.
Read Regnology’s full post here.
Copyright © 2026 FinTech Global
