The UK Financial Conduct Authority’s new Annual Financial Crime Report comes into force on December 31, 2016, requiring many UK regulated firms to report on a broad range of financial crime related data covering customers, jurisdictions, and compliance, as well as staff and sanctions related information.

When planning their actions to deliver the report, firms will be considering important data issues which raise questions around data consistency, accuracy, and reporting, as well as the need to standardize the process going forwards.

In order to identify, access, compile, reconcile, and report on the multiple data points required by the new report, firms seeking to comply should consider 6 key questions:

1. Strategy – should the reporting solution be strategic or tactical?
2. Basis of submission – group or entity?
3. Definitions – how to achieve data consistency across jurisdictions, entities, and custodians.
4. Data strategy – where will the data be sourced?
5. Data accuracy – is the sourced data accurate and complete?
6. Governance – what are the processes, controls and assumptions that have been applied?