Strategic Plan FY25-26 text with binary numbers float behind it

Strategic Plan FY25-26

As I approach my third year as Acting Director, I am proud to share the Office of Financial Research’s (OFR or Office) Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FY) 2025–2026. This two-year plan is intended to align us with the Department of the Treasury’s four-year strategic planning cycle, contributing directly to its “Protect Financial Stability and Resiliency” and “Modernize Treasury Operations” goals.

This new plan is critically important for two reasons:

  • It fulfills our commitment to transparency by making the Office’s mission, vision, strategic goals, and objectives available to the public, increasing our stakeholders’ awareness of how we will serve and support their needs.
  • It provides our leadership and employees with a roadmap for achieving the Office’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives; a framework to translate those goals and objectives into specific, prioritized activities and projects; and a line of sight so that OFR employees know how their work contributes to the Office’s mission.

The past several years have demonstrated the continued relevance of the Office’s financial stability work to support the Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) and its member agencies. Global tensions and rapid technological changes that create challenges for the financial sector mean that elevated financial stability risks will likely persist during the next two years. The Office’s financial stability mission is therefore more critical than ever.

Our FY 2025-2026 Strategic Plan builds on the foundation we’ve laid over the years. We have positioned ourselves as a financial stability research and risk monitoring “force multiplier” for the Council and the broader financial community. Many of our strategic objectives through FY26 will be achieved through our recent data collection capabilities, Joint Analysis Data Environment (JADE), and Non-centrally Cleared Bilateral Repo (NCCBR) data collection. These strategic initiatives will enable not only the Office’s diverse team of experts, but also U.S. financial regulators, academics, and market participants to advance financial stability.

Through FY26, the OFR’s focus is on successful strategy execution to enhance financial stability research, foster collaboration among financial regulators, and increase understanding of financial risks. These strategies include:

  • Closing financial data gaps through new permanent collections, pilots, and data integration and transformation work.
  • Providing the Council and its member agencies, including OFR researchers, secure access to financial data, advanced data analytics and services, and collaboration platforms.
  • Publishing timely, accessible financial stability research and financial risk monitors.
  • Maintaining our commitment to operational and technological excellence, effective and efficient product and service delivery, and ongoing investment in our human capital resources.

This strategic plan establishes the foundation and framework for us to build on our accomplishments and focus on execution over the two-year horizon. It preserves our agility to exploit technological innovations, identify emerging risks, and meet stakeholder needs as they arise.

With the contributions of our highly qualified and dedicated employees, I am committed and excited to continue our important financial stability work in partnership with the Council, its member agencies, and other stakeholders.

James D. Martin
Acting Director

This strategic plan is a comprehensive roadmap that provides an overview of our Office’s mission, vision, goals, and objectives for Fiscal Years (FY) 2025 and 2026.1 It guides us through the upcoming years, ensuring we stay on course with our strategic objectives to further OFR’s research and data services in support of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (Council) and its member agencies. We designed our plan to accommodate the evolving needs of our stakeholders as they address financial vulnerabilities, stress, and even crisis, as well as financial business models that can change over time.

Our Office’s plan is intended to align with the Treasury Department’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026, providing a clear and reassuring strategic direction. The OFR contributes primarily to the Department’s Goal 3, “Protect Financial Stability and Resiliency,” and Goal 5, “Modernize Treasury Operations.” The two-year timeframe synchronizes the OFR’s future strategic planning cycle with the Department of the Treasury’s cycle.

Our strategy will further cement the OFR as a leader and facilitator of financial stability research. The mission and vision guide the OFR in serving our mandates and stakeholders. The Goals and Objectives demonstrate a renewed focus on engaging in the following thematic areas:

  • Providing research and tools for risk measurement and monitoring;
  • Data collections to close data gaps;
  • Leading development of collaboration and information sharing capabilities; and
  • Customer experience-focused excellence across operations.
1 This two-year strategic plan was developed through an abridged strategic planning process to provide a roadmap for the OFR through 2026. The OFR expects to conduct a full strategic planning cycle and develop a longer-term strategic plan once a Senate confirmed director is on board.

The Dodd-Frank Act established the OFR’s purpose, duties, primary responsibilities, and organization structure in Sections 153 and 154. In addition, the Dodd-Frank Act highlights the OFR’s relationship with the Council in Section 112.

Council: Section 112 (a)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act permits the Council to provide direction to and request work by the OFR in support of the Council’s work. The statutory mandate authorizes the Council to direct the activities of the OFR and guide our work. Likewise, the OFR works closely with the Department of the Treasury and all other Council members.

Congress: Congress requires the OFR to report annually to them on the state of the U.S. financial system and the status of our efforts in meeting our mission. Additionally, Section 154 (d) of the Dodd-Frank Act requires the Director to testify before the relevant House and Senate committees on these findings.

Public: Section 154 (b)(2) of the Dodd-Frank Act requires the OFR’s Data Center to publish, in a manner easily accessible to the public, a financial company reference database, a financial instrument reference database, and formats and standards for the OFR’s data.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council

Legend

  • Chairperson of the FSOC
  • Voting Member
  • Nonvoting member

Strategy

Mission

Promote financial stability by delivering high-quality financial data, standards, and analysis, principally to support the Financial Stability Oversight Council and its member agencies.

Vision

A transparent, accountable, and resilient financial system.

Goals and Objectives

a magnifying glass focused on a pie chart with the words goal one below the image

Goal 1: Conduct research and analysis in support of the financial stability work of the Council.

As we continue to deliver on our mandate in the Dodd-Frank Act, we will focus on providing valuable analysis and research, financial risk measurement and monitoring tools, and delivering capabilities that support collaboration and partnerships with our primary stakeholders, the Council and its member agencies.

  • Objective 1.1 - Conduct research and analysis to provide timely insights into threats to financial stability.

    The OFR will monitor vulnerabilities that may compromise financial stability. Given that our Office’s principal constituent is the Council, our research is targeted in scope and aimed at providing an unbiased view of the data and prevailing vulnerabilities. We support the Council in applied analysis and long-term research through monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on developments in the financial system and their impact on systemic risk. We develop tools for measuring and monitoring risks. To that end, our work is informed by frequent collaboration by our subject matter experts with the Council and its respective subcommittees.

  • Objective 1.2 - Develop and employ risk measurements and monitoring tools.

    We perform ongoing risk monitoring of the financial system and develop monitoring tools that we make available to the public. Our monitoring tools provide a snapshot of financial markets at any given time and signal vulnerabilities. The monitors increase market transparency and facilitate research on the financial system by financial industry participants.

  • Objective 1.3 - Enable, foster, and form collaborative research partnerships.

    The OFR fosters a more collaborative research community by delivering technological and community-building solutions to our stakeholders, the Council, and its member agencies.

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Goal 2: Support the Council and its member agencies by providing the data and technology required for financial stability research and analysis.

The OFR’s role in enabling financial research hinges on our ability to provide the data, technology, and analytic support services our Council customers require.

  • Objective 2.1 - Collect, validate, and maintain relevant financial stability data.

    The OFR will directly support the Council by collecting, validating, and maintaining data necessary for it to carry out its duties. The OFR aggregates, validates, and makes data available for analysis and research while safeguarding confidentiality and security.

    The OFR will collect and leverage data like the non-centrally cleared bilateral transactions data and explore additional data collection opportunities to support the work of the Council, its member agencies, and the OFR in identifying and monitoring risks to financial stability.

  • Objective 2.2 - Assist in the development and application of data standards.

    The OFR facilitates the identification and development of standards that are critical to improving data quality and promotes the use of these standards to advance financial research and monitoring.

  • Objective 2.3 - Provide data, tools, technology, and expertise to improve sharing and collaboration.

    The OFR not only supports the development of financial stability research through delivering data tools and technology but also provides data analytics as a service to deliver the maximum value. In addition, the OFR explores emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning to assess, learn, and utilize where appropriate to advance financial stability research.

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Goal 3: Achieve organizational excellence.

We are committed to promoting transparency, accountability, and service orientation across our workforce while continuously improving our organization from top to bottom. After several years of focused organizational maturation and investment, our objective during the coming two years is to leverage our capabilities from that investment, further cultivate our governance and practices, and sustain our core mission support with a renewed stewardship mindset.

  • Objective 3.1 - Promote a high-performance culture of transparency and innovation.

    The OFR promotes a high-performance culture that enables employees to do their best through continued investment in training and development, technology, and tools. We continuously improve operationally through change management, knowledge management, and other leading practices.

  • Objective 3.2 - Recruit and sustain a diverse, empowered, and accountable workforce.

    Ensuring a well-structured and high-performing workforce depends on each of us taking ownership of our organizational culture and consistently making smart, evidence-based decisions. We support a culture that promotes effective performance metrics, innovation, collaboration, training and development, recruitment and retention, and meaningful growth opportunities for the workforce.

  • Objective 3.3 - Further mature governance, service orientation, and the customer experience.

    We continue to improve efficiency and effectiveness by maturing our governance practices and maintaining a direct focus on our customers, ensuring they view the OFR as a valuable partner. As the needs of our customers and stakeholders evolve, so do the OFR’s services and products.

  • Objective 3.4 - Responsibly sustain our core mission support services.

    The OFR recognizes that consistent delivery of high-quality core mission support services is key to our success. The maintenance and continuous improvement of core business functions is important to ensuring the OFR has the stability and ability to evolve to best serve the mission today and tomorrow.