How a Hackathon Led to a Regulatory Verification Tool
Innovation lies at the heart of BM&A’s vision. Our experts enjoy challenging themselves and continuously developing solutions that enhance the performance of both our internal tools and those of our clients.
In this context, our RegTech Manager, Janvi Vaja, took part in a hackathon in London organised by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), in collaboration with the Open Data Institute. The event brought together consultants, developers, data scientists, accountants, investors, policymakers and FinTechs around a challenging objective: “How can we make better use of structured financial data?”
Are companies expanding the taxonomy out of necessity or due to uncertainty?
Observations
Certain tags appeared repeatedly across different companies, while others seemed highly specific to certain preparers, suggesting a genuine degree of customisation but also a lack of consistency.
This was even more apparent when reviewing the disclosures as a whole rather than individually—an issue of particular relevance in a UKSEF environment designed to ensure comparability.
The concept of a decision-support tool
Building on this analysis, our team developed the concept of a decision-support tool designed to guide preparers in their tagging choices.
Its purpose was to shift the focus away from “getting the right answer” and towards transparency in the decision-making process.
The idea was to create a form of audit trail for tagging decisions. The tool would record why a preparer selected an “extension element” and could potentially suggest standard tags that might be more appropriate.
In our view, the real value lies in capturing the rationale behind these choices. This context is usually lost, yet it is precisely what regulators and reviewers need.
Improving structured data—particularly within frameworks such as UKSEF—is not just about better standards. It is about more effective tools, feedback loops, and a shared understanding.
In short, this hackathon gave rise to a strong project designed to address our clients’ needs. Thank you to the FRC and the Open Data Institute for their trust.
