BIRD Expert Group and Steering Group

The BIRD Steering Group (BIRD-SG) acts as the governing body for the BIRD and assesses its objectives, resources and workflows.

The BIRD-SG consists of representatives of both the banking industry and the NCBs, who also report to their representatives in the Banking Industry Dialogue on ESCB statistics. The BIRD-SG has two co-chairs: Mr Massimo Casa (representing the ESCB) and Mr Marc Ziegler (representing the banking industry).

The BIRD-SG oversees the Expert Group, an operational group composed of experts in data modelling and reporting frameworks from the banking industry, central banks and the ECB. The role of these experts is to develop and maintain the BIRD methodology, content and documentation.

Steering group

Introduction

As the BIRD’s governing body, the BIRD Steering Group (BIRD-SG) is responsible for setting the objectives of the BIRD project and providing the resources needed to meet these objectives.

More information about the responsibilities of the BIRD-SG can be found in the Charter of the Steering Group of the Banks’ Integrated Reporting Dictionary.

Work plan

The BIRD Steering Group (SG) agreed, in its meeting on 25^th of October 2019, on the activities of the BIRD Expert Group (EG) for 2019-2021 (see work plan excel link). The minutes of the SG meeting, including the decisions taken, can be found above.

The work streams on modelling (WSDM) and testing (WST) have made significant progress in their work, with the first releases to be delivered in the first half of 2020. This will have a significant impact on the BIRD input layer and transformation rules as they are defined now. For this reason, the SG has decided to postpone the activity of the current BIRD subgroups, which was initially scheduled for the first half of 2020, and to focus on progressing with the WSs testing and modelling so to ensure the stability of the BIRD model and the correctness of its definitions, before continuing the integration of new reporting frameworks. The BIRD sub-groups are expected to resume their activity in the second half of 2020. 

Consequently the future releases of BIRD, until mid-2020, will focus on integrating the WSDM requirements, error corrections and any other updates as recommended by the WST. The WST is currently focusing its activity on the 4.3 version of BIRD.

Previous work plan

Expert Group

The BIRD Expert Group (BIRD-EG) is the operational body of the BIRD project and is responsible for fulfilling the objectives set by the BIRD-SG. The BIRD-EG comprises representatives of the banking industry and the ESCB who have expertise in reporting requirements and data modelling. The BIRD-EG currently has more than 130 active members from 30 commercial banks, five euro area national central banks and the ECB. The table below shows which institutions are currently actively involved in the BIRD project.

How does the Expert Group work?

Members of the BIRD-EG are allocated to sub-groups and work streams, in accordance with the work plan established by the BIRD-SG. Each sub-group and work stream has a clear mandate and helps to expand the content of the BIRD documentation. Sub-groups are normally temporary in nature and focus on integrating a specific reporting framework (or part thereof) into the BIRD. Their activity is therefore business-driven; it involves examining the business logic behind reporting requirements and determining how this should be integrated into the BIRD). Work streams, meanwhile, cover broader and more technical aspects of the BIRD project, such as building and maintaining an efficient data model and performing testing activities. Work streams can be either temporary or more stable in nature.

Meetings of the sub-groups usually take place in parallel. Close collaboration between the sub-groups is a key feature of the work of the BIRD-EG and joint sessions may be organised. Each meeting of the BIRD-EG usually includes a plenary session during which members are informed about the progress of the work in each sub-group and discuss possible improvements and challenges.

Meetings of the different work streams may take place independently of the BIRD-EG meetings. The frequency of the meetings depends on the availability of the members and the needs of the specific project. The coordinators of the work streams regularly inform the BIRD-EG about the progress of their work during the plenary meetings.

The work of the sub-groups culminates in a new release of the BIRD which incorporates a new reporting framework into the database. The activities of the work streams are reflected in quality assurance reports, guidelines, recommendations and consultations with the sub-groups on technical aspects.