BIS releases 'game-changing' SupTech prototype

Conceived as a cross-border common data model that could be shared by supervisors around the globe, the 'Ellipse' prototype applies machine learning and natural language processing to unstructured and granular reporting data. This allows identification of risk correlations and sentiment analysis, so as to alert supervisors in real time to issues that may need further investigation.

To scale the project, the BIS is to launch an Ellipse collaboration community to share, further test, customise and develop the platform across regulatory authorities around the world.

The prototype is the first to be published on BIS Open Tech, a new 'open source' platform for sharing statistical and financial software as public goods, in an effort to promote international cooperation and coordination.

Ross Leckow, acting head of the BIS Innovation Hub, says of the prototype: "It has the potential to be a game-changer by giving supervisors access to more and better data, structured and unstructured, with greater predictive insights than ever before, it can be scaled to provide real time analysis on a national or cross border supervisory basis."

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is already adapting the prototype to meet its own supervisory needs.

Hern Shin Ho deputy MD for financial supervision at MAS, says: “Recent technological advancements have opened up possibilities for supervisors to leverage on more granular, timely and varied datasets to significantly improve supervisory effectiveness. Project Ellipse clearly demonstrates that collection and use of such datasets need not be prohibitive, but can be codified, efficient, cost effective and potentially scalable even on a cross border basis. I hope other supervisors will similarly find it useful and look forward to further joint initiatives to develop common SupTech solutions for supervisors.”