Title 12, Banks and BankingRelease 119-110

§5344 Organizational Structure; Responsibilities of Primary Programmatic Units

Title 12 › CHAPTER 53 — WALL STREET REFORM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION › SUBCHAPTER I — FINANCIAL STABILITY › Part B — Office of Financial Research › § 5344

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Office must run two centers: a Data Center and a Research and Analysis Center. The Data Center must gather, check, and keep the data needed for the Office’s work. It gets data from member agencies, commercial sources, public sources, and financial firms. The Office can require reports from financial firms to see if those firms, markets, or activities threaten U.S. financial stability. Before asking for reports, the Office must coordinate with other regulators to avoid duplicate reporting. The Director, with the Council, sets the schedule for collecting transaction and position data. The Data Center must write rules about what data to collect, make public reference databases for companies and financial instruments and standards for reporting, protect confidential information, keep data secure, keep a catalog of reported entities and instruments, share data with the Council and member agencies, and—after consulting regulators—share certain nonconfidential data with the public and industry when it is safe and legal to do so. The Research and Analysis Center must build tools and computer resources to measure and track risks to financial stability, watch and report changes in risk to the Council and Congress, run and support research to help regulate markets, evaluate stress tests, keep expert staff to assist regulators, investigate market failures and give recommendations, study policy effects on systemic risk, and promote good risk-management practices. The Office must send a report to Congress not later than 2 years after July 21, 2010, and within 120 days after each fiscal year, describing the state of the U.S. financial system, any threats to stability, the Office’s progress, and main research findings.

Full Legal Text

Title 12, §5344

Banks and Banking, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

There are established within the Office, to carry out the programmatic responsibilities of the Office—

(1)the Data Center; and

(2)the Research and Analysis Center.

(b)Data Center

(1)General duties

(A)Data collection

The Data Center, on behalf of the Council, shall collect, validate, and maintain all data necessary to carry out the duties of the Data Center, as described in this part. The data assembled shall be obtained from member agencies, commercial data providers, publicly available data sources, and financial entities under subparagraph (B).

(B)Authority

(i)In general

The Office may, as determined by the Council or by the Director in consultation with the Council, require the submission of periodic and other reports from any financial company for the purpose of assessing the extent to which a financial activity or financial market in which the financial company participates, or the financial company itself, poses a threat to the financial stability of the United States.

(ii)Mitigation of report burden

Before requiring the submission of a report from any financial company that is regulated by a member agency, any primary financial regulatory agency, a foreign supervisory authority, or the Office shall coordinate with such agencies or authority, and shall, whenever possible, rely on information available from such agencies or authority.

(iii)Collection of financial transaction and position data

The Office shall collect, on a schedule determined by the Director, in consultation with the Council, financial transaction data and position data from financial companies.

(C)Rulemaking

The Office shall promulgate regulations pursuant to subsections (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(7), and (c)(1) of section 5343 of this title regarding the type and scope of the data to be collected by the Data Center under this paragraph.

(2)Responsibilities

(A)Publication

The Data Center shall prepare and publish, in a manner that is easily accessible to the public—

(i)a financial company reference database;

(ii)a financial instrument reference database; and

(iii)formats and standards for Office data, including standards for reporting financial transaction and position data to the Office.

(B)Confidentiality

The Data Center shall not publish any confidential data under subparagraph (A).

(3)Information security

The Director shall ensure that data collected and maintained by the Data Center are kept secure and protected against unauthorized disclosure.

(4)Catalog of financial entities and instruments

The Data Center shall maintain a catalog of the financial entities and instruments reported to the Office.

(5)Availability to the Council and member agencies

The Data Center shall make data collected and maintained by the Data Center available to the Council and member agencies, as necessary to support their regulatory responsibilities.

(6)Other authority

The Office shall, after consultation with the member agencies, provide certain data to financial industry participants and to the general public to increase market transparency and facilitate research on the financial system, to the extent that intellectual property rights are not violated, business confidential information is properly protected, and the sharing of such information poses no significant threats to the financial system of the United States.

(c)Research and Analysis Center

(1)General duties

The Research and Analysis Center, on behalf of the Council, shall develop and maintain independent analytical capabilities and computing resources—

(A)to develop and maintain metrics and reporting systems for risks to the financial stability of the United States;

(B)to monitor, investigate, and report on changes in systemwide risk levels and patterns to the Council and Congress;

(C)to conduct, coordinate, and sponsor research to support and improve regulation of financial entities and markets;

(D)to evaluate and report on stress tests or other stability-related evaluations of financial entities overseen by the member agencies;

(E)to maintain expertise in such areas as may be necessary to support specific requests for advice and assistance from financial regulators;

(F)to investigate disruptions and failures in the financial markets, report findings, and make recommendations to the Council based on those findings;

(G)to conduct studies and provide advice on the impact of policies related to systemic risk; and

(H)to promote best practices for financial risk management.

(d)Reporting responsibilities

(1)Required reports

Not later than 2 years after July 21, 2010, and not later than 120 days after the end of each fiscal year thereafter, the Office shall prepare and submit a report to Congress.

(2)Content

Each report required by this subsection shall assess the state of the United States financial system, including—

(A)an analysis of any threats to the financial stability of the United States;

(B)the status of the efforts of the Office in meeting the mission of the Office; and

(C)key findings from the research and analysis of the financial system by the Office.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

12 U.S.C. § 5344

Title 12, Banks and Banking

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110