EBA Updates Validation Rules List and Releases DPM 2.0 Validation Package for Quarterly Reporting

Key Takeaways

• The European Banking Authority issued its quarterly update to the validation rules in its reporting frameworks, deactivating some rules due to inaccuracies or IT issues and reactivating others.
• It also released a validation rules package (a micro taxonomy and DPM update scripts) required from release 4.0 onward.
• Compliance and regulatory reporting teams should confirm that their validation logic matches the updated rule set to avoid false errors and resubmissions.

Deep Dive

The European Banking Authority issued its quarterly update to the validation rules in its reporting frameworks, deactivating some rules due to inaccuracies or IT issues and reactivating others. It also released a validation rules package (a micro taxonomy and DPM update scripts) required from release 4.0 onward. Compliance and regulatory reporting teams should confirm that their validation logic matches the updated rule set to avoid false errors and resubmissions.

The revised list identifies validation rules that have been deactivated because of inaccuracies or IT-related issues, and rules that have been reactivated. For compliance and regulatory reporting teams, this changes which checks apply to data submitted under the Implementing Technical Standards (ITS) and Guidelines. Institutions that run internal validation engines or rely on vendor tools need to confirm their rule sets reflect the current active and inactive status of each rule.

Competent authorities are reminded that submitted data should not be formally validated against deactivated rules. Reporting institutions should therefore not expect submissions to be rejected on that basis. They should still keep internal data quality controls in place, since a deactivated rule does not remove the underlying data accuracy obligation. Reactivated rules, by contrast, may start producing validation failures again, which could affect submission acceptance if they are not anticipated.

The EBA also released a small validation rules package containing a micro taxonomy package and Data Point Model (DPM) validation rules update scripts. These components are required from release 4.0 onward for each validation rules update exercise, and they keep amendments consistent across the taxonomy and the DPM. With the introduction of DPM 2.0 from release 4.0, validation rules are embedded directly in both the taxonomy and the DPM. The EBA says this improves implementation consistency, traceability of changes, and the efficiency and harmonization of supervisory reporting. The press release does not state specific compliance deadlines or effective dates beyond the release 4.0 reference, so teams should check the EBA's technical documentation for applicable timelines.

Recommended actions:
- Compare the updated list against internal and vendor validation rule libraries, and update the status of deactivated and reactivated rules.
- Confirm that the micro taxonomy package and DPM update scripts are incorporated into the reporting toolchain, particularly for institutions migrating to DPM 2.0 and release 4.0.
- Test submissions in a non-production environment before the next reporting cycle.
- Document the changes in the change management and data lineage records.
- Coordinate with IT, data governance, and vendors, and consult the national competent authority if there is any ambiguity.

The overall risk is moderate and mainly operational. The main exposures are misaligned validation logic, failed or delayed submissions, resubmission workload, and data quality gaps if teams wrongly treat deactivated rules as irrelevant. The embedded validation approach should reduce inconsistency over time, but only if implementation is accurate and well governed.

Source: European Banking Authority