§5343 Purpose and Duties of the Office

Summary

The Office must help the Council and member agencies by collecting data, making data types and formats consistent, doing short- and long-term research, building tools to measure and watch risk, and sharing its results with financial regulators. It can share data and software with the Council, member agencies, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, but that shared material must have the same security the Office uses and cannot be given to others without the Council’s OK. The Office can run research projects and help other federal agencies with financial work if they pay. The Office can make rules only as needed to collect data, set standard formats, and help agencies decide what to collect. Member agencies must put those rules into practice; if a member agency does not do so within 3 years after final rules are published, the Office may apply the rules to the firms under that agency, without taking away the agency’s separate legal power to collect data in its own way. The Director must report and testify once a year to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Committee on Financial Services about the Office’s work, including the Data Center, the Research and Analysis Center, and any major market developments or threats to financial stability. No U.S. officer or agency can require prior approval or review of that testimony. The testimony must say the views are the Director’s and not necessarily the President’s. The Director may also send extra reports to Congress and must tell the Council when doing so. The Director can demand data from a financial company by issuing a subpoena (a legal order) only after a written finding that the data is needed and after coordinating with the relevant primary regulator. Subpoenas must be signed by the Director and served as the Director directs. If someone disobeys, a federal court can enforce the subpoena and punish contempt.