FSB and IMF Announce Completion of the G20 Initiative to Close Data Gaps Identified in the Global Financial Crisis

IMF News, June 9, 2022

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Published report marks the completion of the second phase of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative (DGI-2).
Report finds "significant progress" in addressing data gaps identified during the global financial crisis of 2007-08 through DGI-1 and DGI-2.
Progress areas include:
- development of conceptual frameworks;
- improvements in data coverage, timeliness, and periodicity.
Improvements have helped policymakers develop effective policy responses, including responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The close collaboration among participating economies and international organizations, the peer pressure mechanism, and explicit support from the G20 are cited as key factors enabling better understanding of risks and vulnerabilities.

Despite progress, challenges remain for some participating economies in fully closing data gaps related to some DGI-2 recommendations.
Specific areas where challenges remain:
- securities financing transaction data;
- securities statistics;
- sectoral accounts;
- international investment position;
- international banking statistics;
- cross-border exposures of non-bank corporations;
- public sector debt statistics;
- commercial property price indices.
Participating economies and international organizations will continue to address these remaining challenges.
Implementation will be monitored on an annual basis, as in DGI-2, and findings will be published on the DGI webpage.

Building on the success of DGI-2, participating economies and international organizations support further work to address data gaps relating to emerging policy needs.
IMF staff, in close cooperation with the FSB and the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG), and in consultation with participating economies, have developed a high-level workplan for the new initiative.
The workplan covers 14 recommendations under four main statistical and data priorities:
- (i) climate change;
- (ii) household distributional information;
- (iii) fintech and financial inclusion;
- (iv) access to private sources of data and administrative data, and data sharing.
The workplan will be submitted to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors later this year and its recommendations are expected to be implemented within five years after the launch.

In October 2009, the FSB and IMF published The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps in response to a request from G20 Ministers and Governors; that report set out recommendations that led to the first phase (DGI-1).
In September 2015, it was agreed that the DGI work should continue into a second phase (DGI-2).
The main objective of DGI-2 was to implement the regular collection and dissemination of reliable and timely statistics for policy use and included new recommendations to reflect evolving policymaker needs.
DGI-2 contained 20 recommendations clustered under three main headings:
- (i) monitoring risk in the financial sector;
- (ii) vulnerabilities, interconnections and spillovers;
- (iii) data sharing and communication of official statistics.
DGI-2 maintained continuity with the DGI-1 recommendations while setting more specific objectives for G20 economies to compile and disseminate minimum common datasets.
Member agencies of the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics (IAG) are:
- Bank for International Settlements;
- European Central Bank;
- Eurostat;
- IMF (Chair);
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development;
- the United Nations;
- the World Bank.
The FSB participates in the IAG meetings.

FSB and IMF Announce Completion of the G20 Initiative to Close Data Gaps Identified in the Global Financial Crisis

G20 Data Gaps Initiative Dgi 2 Closing Report
- G20 Data Gaps Initiative Dgi 2 Closing Report (Markdown version)
- G20 Data Gaps Initiative Dgi 2 Closing Report (PDF)