Gabriel’s Going

The FCA is responding to the ever-increasing use of data in our financial services and are looking to improve the way in which they collect data from firms. This will see Gabriel, the current main regulatory data system being replaced with a more “easy to use system” that is “efficient” and can adapt to the FCA’s “changing needs”.

With Gabriel being used to facilitate the collection of 500,000 submissions annually, across 120,000 users and 52,000 firms, the FCA are cleverly and reassuringly reaching out to existing users to provide their input on what the updated system and approach should look like. This is being facilitated with a survey and a programme of events and activities to capture thoughts and test the new platform.

In our data centric environment, it is imperative that the FCA are able to “deepen (their) understanding of markets and consumers, and more swiftly identify, appropriately intervene and remediate issues to minimize harm”. This relies on firms being able to effectively meet their regulatory reporting requirements by providing high quality, meaningful information.

Work is in its early stages. The FCA plan to publish the findings from their information gathering later this year, giving stakeholders an opportunity to discuss the feedback and initial plans. Early changes will be technology focused and won’t require immediate changes to the way data is submitted in the first instance. More significant improvements will be phased in as user feedback is received and considered.

With such an instrumental change, clever firms will be planning ahead and looking at how their structure will need to adapt to this change. This could come in the form of permanent hires or bringing in specialist consultants or task forces. The Danos Group, through both the Associates search and selection and Consulting practices have a rich network of specialists in change and process management ideal for this task. Please get in touch for support with your team strategy.