FSA financial reporting guidelines to start next April. Leading City institutions have raised concerns about the security of data that will have to be transferred online and electronically under new reporting guidelines from the Financial Services Authority (FSA). As part of an overhaul of its reporting system for regulated firms, the FSA is introducing Mandatory Electronic Reporting (MER) over a three-year period through to 1 April 2007. Mortgage and insurance companies will be the first to bite the bullet from April next year. Firms will be able to either log on to the FSA’s secure website and complete the reporting forms online, or connect its systems directly to the FSA over a secure internet link using the extensible business reporting language (XBRL) standard. Full Story