Sapient Enhances Data Tool for European Repo Agreements

The new regulation will require reporting of collateral used in the new ECB repurchase, or repo, agreements system, soon to begin with residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). Sapient, a Boston-based financial services provider, was a principal builder of the data warehouse to back the project.

The new solution will include a number of features, combining complex data mapping and enrichment, conversion of data to appropriate formats for different national and supranational banks (e.g. ECB or Bank of England), and connectivity providing two-way communication between regulators and users.

"The challenge for most data providers will be locating, identifying and extracting large volumes of complex data from disparate systems. Not to mention that they will also need to standardize the data to fit the ECB's asset-specific templates, and create and submit compiled XML files to the European DataWarehouse. Today's announcement is a huge step forward for companies looking to ensure compliance within the ECB's short timeframe," says Randall Orbon, Sapient Global Markets' vice president.