Many agencies are partnering with international counterparts to advance standards, and the US Office of Financial Research (OFR) is one of the offices involved with other standards setting organizations on the development, adoption, and use of data standards.
As part of this initiative, OFR works with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Accredited Standards Committee X9 to develop financial data standards for digital identities, digital assets, and distributed ledger technologies (DLT).
Physical currencies and financial instruments have standards for core data elements, identification, and security — and it is crucial to develop such standards for data associated with digitized assets and currencies.
In the digital environment, validating parties and supporting faster real-time processing via quantum computing require data standards. Some standards, such as ISO 4217 (Currency Codes), exist today. Others may be adopted or developed to meet specific requirements.
The OFR contributed to the development of an ISO advisory group report on central and non-fiat digital bank currencies. A key aim of this report was to identify use cases for these currencies and provide recommendations regarding data standards that support these cases.
The OFR also leads an X9 working group that addresses gaps in the security and integrity of blockchain and DLT for payments and financial services.
Finally, the OFR recently led the development of a proposal for a technical report to be titled TR60: Risk Assessment Framework for Bank-Provided Crypto-Asset Custodial Accounts.
In a blog post, James Martin, OFR’s director, writes: “I applaud our federal partners, standards development organizations, and the private sector for their efforts to analyze and establish standards to meet the demand for digital identities, digital assets, and distributed-ledger technologies. We must ensure that all parties involved reach a voluntary consensus on standards and work together to guarantee the safe and sound development of these emerging technologies.”