The various BIS international financial statistics, as well as other BIS activities in the statistical area, require the transmission, processing and dissemination of vast amounts of statistical data and related methodological information (so-called metadata). On behalf of the central banks involved in its statistical work, the BIS is a sponsor of the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) initiative, together with the ECB, Eurostat, IMF, OECD, World Bank and UN. The goal is to develop and maintain standards for the exchange of statistical data at the technical level as well as with respect to metadata concepts.
A first version of the technical standards involving EDI and the eXtensible Mark-Up Language (XML) was approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in April 2005, thereby anchoring them within the international standards community. Discussions have been started with XBRL International, which is developing similar standards for accounting information, in order to ensure that the emerging frameworks for exchanging statistical and accounting data are interoperable as much as possible.
All information regarding SDMX is available on www.sdmx.org. For queries on this initiative and the BIS's role in it, please contact Mr Stuart Feder (stuart.feder@bis.org).