Description

A focused course, tailored for you

Regulatory Reporting Excellence for Banking Operations

Build the data lineage, QA controls, and variance commentary skills that pass ECB and EBA scrutiny every quarter.

Every quarter, the same race: source data changes without notice, mapping files drift, variance commentary is written to paper over what are actually data quality issues. The submission goes out on time but the root cause stays live for next quarter.

$199 one-time

Tailored to your situation. Access within 24 hours. 30-day money-back.

Includes a hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, generated for your specific situation.

Why this course

Assistant Managers and Senior Analysts in regulatory reporting sit at the junction of finance, risk, and IT. They own the accuracy of COREP, FINREP, and large-exposure returns without owning the systems that produce the underlying data. When a figure breaks, they absorb the investigation. When commentary is questioned by supervisors, they are accountable for an explanation. The skills gap is not technical knowledge of the regulations. It is the operational craft of documenting data lineage clearly enough that any team member can trace a number to its source, designing QA controls that surface breaks before the deadline rather than during it, and writing variance commentary that a prudential supervisor accepts as analytical rather than defensive.

What you walk away with

Document data lineage from source table to reported figure in a format any team member can follow and any auditor can review.
Design QA control logic that catches breaks three days before deadline rather than the morning of submission.
Build a variance commentary framework that distinguishes data issues from genuine business movements and holds up under supervisor scrutiny.
Create a reusable mapping file governance process so mid-quarter system changes are captured before they become submission errors.
Apply EBA validation rule logic to identify which template cells carry the highest error risk and prioritise QA effort accordingly.
Produce a quarterly close checklist that moves the production cycle from reactive to process-driven.

The 12 modules

Module 1. The Anatomy of a Regulatory Return

Map the full chain from ledger entry to reported cell for one COREP template. Identify every transformation step, every lookup table, and every manual override point. This module builds the lineage habit by working through a realistic example before introducing any tooling or methodology. By the end you have a hand-drawn lineage diagram you can validate against the actual data flow in your environment.

Module 2. Data Lineage Documentation That Survives Team Turnover

Most lineage documentation lives in one person's head or a spreadsheet with no version control. This module covers a lightweight documentation standard, table-to-cell mapping format, and change-log discipline that lets any new team member trace a figure without asking. Includes a downloadable mapping template pre-formatted for COREP C 07.00 and FINREP F 01.01 structures.

Module 3. QA Control Design: What to Check and When

Walk through the three categories of QA control: cross-cell arithmetic validation, prior-period variance thresholds, and source-to-return reconciliation. Learn which checks to run at data extraction, which at transformation, and which at final population. This module produces a QA run-order document and a threshold table calibrated to your reporting frequency and exposure types.

Module 4. EBA Validation Rules as a QA Input

The EBA publishes validation rules for every ITS template. Most teams treat them as a final-step check rather than a QA design input. This module shows how to read the validation rule taxonomy, identify which rules cover your highest-volume cells, and build those rule checks into the QA stage before population, reducing late-stage failures. Includes a worked example for own funds templates.

Module 5. Variance Commentary: Analytical vs Defensive

Supervisors can distinguish commentary that explains a movement from commentary that explains why the reporting team is not responsible for it. This module breaks down what ECB and EBA examiners look for in quarterly variance explanations, provides a commentary structure for business-driven movements versus data quality issues, and includes a before-and-after rewrite of five real commentary types to demonstrate the difference.

Module 6. Building a Commentary Library

Recurring movements, seasonal patterns, and standard methodological explanations should be written once and versioned. This module covers building a commentary library keyed to template and cell range, a review cadence for updating library entries when the business or methodology changes, and a sign-off workflow that separates drafting from approval. Reduces rewriting under deadline pressure to exception handling only.

Module 7. Mapping File Governance for Mid-Quarter Changes

Core systems change during the quarter. New GL accounts, revised cost centre hierarchies, counterparty reclassifications. Without a governed process, the mapping file at submission reflects month-end reality, not quarter-end reality. This module introduces a change-notification process, a mapping freeze date protocol, and a retrospective reconciliation check that catches divergence before it becomes a submission error.

Module 8. Large Exposures and Concentration Risk Returns

C 28 and related large exposure templates carry some of the highest supervisor scrutiny because the figures link directly to breach calculations. This module covers the data sourcing chain for LE returns, common mapping errors for connected-counterparty aggregation, QA checks specific to threshold proximity reporting, and commentary standards when an exposure is close to or has breached a limit.

Module 9. FINREP Reconciliation to the Financial Statements

FINREP figures are expected to reconcile to the published financial statements within a defined tolerance. Breaks emerge from scope differences, consolidation adjustments, and timing mismatches. This module works through the reconciliation methodology, documents which cells to check against which financial statement lines, and builds a reconciliation pack template that an external auditor or supervisor can follow independently.

Module 10. Deadline Management and the Production Calendar

Most reporting stress is structural rather than random. It concentrates at specific points in the production calendar because the calendar was never designed, it accumulated. This module covers building a production calendar backward from submission date, assigning QA stage owners, building in buffer for IT dependency failures, and creating an escalation path for breaks discovered after the QA freeze.

Module 11. Responding to Supervisor Queries

When a national competent authority or ECB sends a query on a submitted return, the response format matters as much as the content. This module covers query triage (data question versus methodology question versus policy question), response drafting standards that demonstrate analytical depth, the documentation trail needed to support a resubmission if required, and the internal sign-off process for query responses under time pressure.

Module 12. Building the Quarterly Close Checklist

The output of this course is a repeatable, owned process. This final module consolidates all prior modules into a quarterly close checklist: lineage verification, QA run-order, mapping freeze confirmation, commentary draft triggers, reconciliation pack completion, and supervisor query readiness. The checklist is formatted as a downloadable, editable template sized to a team of two to five people running monthly and quarterly EBA submissions.

How this addresses your situation

Specific modules that map to what you said you are dealing with.

Mid-quarter system change not captured in mapping file, figure breaks at QA stage three days before deadline: Modules 3, 7, 10.

Variance commentary rejected or questioned by supervisor, team rewrites under time pressure: Modules 5, 6, 11.

New team member cannot trace a reported figure to its source without asking the one person who built the mapping: Modules 1, 2, 7.

EBA validation rule failure surfaces at submission stage, cause is unclear: Modules 3, 4, 9.

What you get with this course

Twelve written modules covering the full production cycle from data lineage to supervisor query response.
Downloadable mapping template pre-formatted for COREP and FINREP structures.
QA run-order document and threshold table template.
Commentary library template with before-and-after rewrite examples.
Quarterly close checklist editable for teams of two to five.
Hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access, scoped to regulatory reporting operations.

What you will have in hand by Day 1, Week 1, Month 1

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.

Before and after

Before

The production cycle runs on institutional memory. Breaks surface late because QA is a final-step check rather than a staged process. Commentary is rewritten under deadline pressure when supervisors push back. A system change mid-quarter creates a reconciliation problem that takes half a day to trace.

After

Lineage is documented to the cell level and accessible to any team member. QA controls run in stages and surface breaks three days before deadline. Commentary is drawn from a library and updated for the specific movement. Mid-quarter changes are captured in a governed process before they become submission errors.

What happens if you do not address this

Each production cycle that runs on undocumented process is one team change, one system migration, or one supervisor query away from a material failure. The cost is not just the time absorbed per quarter. It is the risk profile of submissions that carry undetected data quality issues and commentary that reads as defensive rather than analytical.

Who it is for

You are in a regulatory reporting team at a large bank. Your title is Assistant Manager or Analyst. You produce quarterly and monthly submissions to the ECB, EBA, or a national competent authority. You understand the reporting templates. What you want is a cleaner, faster, less stressful production cycle where fewer breaks surface late and commentary is written once rather than rewritten under time pressure.

Who this is NOT for. Teams that already have fully documented data lineage, automated QA controls with threshold alerts, and a commentary library that supervisors consistently accept without follow-up questions. This course is not for regulatory strategy or framework design roles; it is for the people who produce the returns.

How it arrives

Text-based course in the Art of Service learning environment, plus downloadable templates and worked examples for every module, plus the hand-built implementation playbook delivered alongside course access.

Time investment. Twelve modules. Most learners complete two to three modules per week alongside their regular role. Full course completion in four to six weeks. Templates are usable immediately on first pass; the implementation playbook is scoped after enrolment.

Why $199 is the right number

EBA and ECB publish guidance documents and validation rule taxonomies freely, but they describe what is required, not how to build the operational process to meet it reliably. Internal training at most banks covers the regulatory framework, not the production craft. This course covers the craft: documentation standards, QA control logic, commentary frameworks, and governance processes that a two-to-five person team can implement without a dedicated project.

FAQ

Is this course specific to a particular bank or jurisdiction?

The course is built for Assistant Managers and Analysts producing EBA-format returns (COREP, FINREP, large exposures) under ECB or national competent authority oversight. The frameworks and templates apply across eurozone and EBA-reporting jurisdictions. The implementation playbook delivered at enrolment is scoped to your specific reporting environment.

Do I need to be technically skilled in SQL or data tools to use this course?

No. The data lineage and QA modules describe logic and process, not code. The templates are formatted in a way that works in Excel or any equivalent tool. The course assumes you can read a mapping file and understand what a validation rule is checking; it does not assume programming skills.

How does the implementation playbook work?

After enrolment, the playbook is hand-built for your role and reporting environment. It maps the course modules to your actual submission calendar, your specific templates, and the data dependencies your team works with. It arrives within 24 hours of purchase alongside your course access.

What if I only need help with one part, like commentary or QA controls?

The modules are self-contained. You can start with Module 5 and Module 6 if commentary is the immediate pressure point, then return to the lineage and QA modules when the production cycle allows. The implementation playbook will note which modules are highest priority for your situation.

30-day money-back guarantee. If after a week of working through the materials this is not what you needed, reply to the receipt email and a full refund is processed. No questions, no forms.

Within 24 hours your account in the learning environment is provisioned and the tailored implementation playbook is delivered alongside it.