Banking Regulation and the Data Quality Act
Fair Finance Watch (FFW) has requested that the Federal Reserve hold a public hearing on Wachovia Corp's planned acquisition of Golden West Financial Corp. FFW describes itself as an NGO "focused on the fairness of the financial services industries..." FFW is an affiliate of Inner City Press /Community on the Move, a "non-profit community, consumers' and human rights organization...."

FFW views the hearing as an opportunity to express their concerns about the business practices of both institutions. What FFW may not realize is that Federal Reserve will be unable to use or rely on any comments, studies or other information they receive, either at a possible public hearing or in writing, unless that information complies with the OMB and Federal Reserve Data Quality Guidelines.

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors, as is the case for all federal agencies, is required to adhere to the Data Quality Act, OMB's government-wide Data Quality guidelines, and their own agency-specific DQ guidelines. The guidelines apply to virtually all information released by the Federal Reserve and covers third-party data used by the Board.

The Federal Reserve's adherence to the DQA helps strengthen the Board's strong commitment to ensuring that banking regulatory policies are based only on transparent high quality data and analysis.