In September 2015, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors endorsed the launch of the second phase of the DGI (DGI-2). The main objective of the DGI-2 was to implement the regular collection and dissemination of reliable and timely statistics for policy use. The DGI-2 aimed at setting more specific objectives with the intention for the G20 economies to compile and disseminate minimum common datasets for several specific DGI-2 Recommendations.

To support the DGI-2, the WGSD developed a proposal for a new Recommendation 7 on Securities Statistics, which defined precise data sets on debt securities to be reported to the BIS. The proposal provided for a set of reporting templates with a core set of data to be reported by the G20 economies by 2021, including an intermediate objective by 2018, and a more advanced objective by 2021.

A First Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 Economies focusing on the new Recommendation 7 was organized by the WGSD and hosted by the ECB in Frankfurt on 14-15 April 2016. At the Workshop, representatives from almost all G20 economies, the WGSD, and the FSB developed an action plan for the implementation of DGI-2 Recommendation 7 on Securities Statistics. Participants also reached a common view on the final reporting templates for DGI-2 Recommendation 7, which covered templates for debt securities issues statistics, debt securities holdings statistics and from-whom-to-whom debt securities issues and holdings statistics. These templates were described in detail in an accompanying Explanatory Note that linked the templates to the Handbook on Securities Statistics and that defined specific sets of core data to be provided by the G20 economies as an intermediate objective by 2018 and more advanced objective by 2021.

As a follow-up to the Workshop, the G20 economies and almost all non-G20 FSB member economies provided self-commitments on the implementation of the Recommendation 7 reporting templates, which were presented at the DGI-2 Global Conference in Basel on 6-7 June 2016. In addition, the WGSD published a Complementary Note 1 to the HSS on the calculation of accrued interest and a Complementary Note 2 to the HSS on the classification of debt securities by interest rate type to support the implementation of the reporting templates.

A Second Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 Economies was organized by the WGSD and hosted by the IMF in Washington, D.C. on 21-22 March 2018. At the Workshop, representatives from 22 G20 and non-G20 FSB economies, the FSB, and the WGSD assessed the progress with the implementation of the reporting under DGI-2 Recommendation 7 and agreed on the technical details for the 2018 intermediate reporting objectives.

The Second Workshop confirmed the self-commitments for the 2018 intermediate reporting objective. Via a questionnaire circulated ahead of the Workshop, it was confirmed that all economies that made self-commitments expected to implement their self-commitments fully or mostly by 2018. Regarding the technical infrastructure for the reporting of securities statistics, the Workshop agreed on the re-use of the existing Global DSD on Sector Accounts (NA_SEC) for exchanging data on securities statistics, noting that this is not a mandatory requirement for the reporting to the BIS in the context of Recommendation II.7. The Workshop participants also reached a common view on the operational details of the reporting, agreeing to transmit data with reference date Q4/2018 by beginning of May 2019 (i.e., with a timeliness of 4 months) at the latest. The Workshop benefitted from a rich exchange of experiences between the participating economies, including nine economy presentations on the experiences and challenges in the implementation of DGI-2 Recommendation 7 and the use of security-by-security data for compiling securities statistics. The discussions highlighted the benefits of an increased use and greater standardization of security-by-security (SBS) data, including the application of unique identifiers for securities and their issuers and holders such as the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). Moreover, to support the use of SBS data in the compilation of comparable and consistent securities statistics, the idea was discussed that the existing BIS-ECB-IMF Handbook on Securities Statistics could be complemented by an addendum on SBS data standards.

To provide an overview of where the G20/FSB economies stand with the implementation of their self-commitments for the 2021 targets, the WGSD circulated a questionnaire on the implementation status of self-commitments in January 2020. The responses to the questionnaire showed that the G20/FSB economies had made significant progress with the implementation of Recommendation 7, with almost all economies that had made self-commitments expecting to implement them fully or mostly by 2021.

A Third Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 and FSB Economies had been planned for April 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the WGSD organised a VirtualWorkshop on Securities Statistics on 21 October 2020, which was attended by representatives from 23 G20 and non-G20 FSB economies, the FSB, the World Bank and the WGSD. The Virtual Workshop confirmed the self-commitments for the 2021 reporting objectives of Recommendation 7. Regarding the transmission of securities statistics, the participants supported extending the reporting timeline by six months in line with the corresponding extension of the conclusion of the DGI-2, by transmitting Q2/2021 data for the 2021 reporting objectives by November 2021. Finally, the call also discussed the strategic priorities for continuing and deepening the cooperation between compilers of securities statistics, including future workshops and courses, the continuation and expansion of the data collection, and an update of the Handbook on Securities Statistics.

By the conclusion of the DGI-2 at end 2021, significant progress had been made in closing data gaps on securities statistics across the G20 members and non-G20 FSB member economies. Most importantly, DGI-2 Recommendation 7 for the first time implemented a common reporting framework for harmonised and comparable securities statistics by the G20 and non-G20 FSB economies to the BIS. As a result of this the closing report of the DGI-2 concluded that Recommendation 7 significantly improved the understanding of policymakers and other data users on financial risks by providing information on “quarterly developments in the debt securities markets of almost all participating economies through harmonized data on debt securities issuance, holdings and from-whom-to-whom statistics broken down by sector, currency, maturity, interest rate type and market, which are compiled in line with the Handbook on Securities Statistics. These data support comparative analysis across economies as well as policy formulations and financial stability monitoring.”

Despite the progress made during the DGI-2, challenges remain for some participating economies in fully closing the data gaps related to some DGI-2 recommendations including Recommendation 7. The WGSD thus continues to work with participating G20 and non-G20 FSB economies on further extending the data collection on securities statistics and closing these remaining gaps. In parallel, the BIS will continue to expand the dissemination of the data collected under DGI-2 as they come in. A first step was the partial release of these additional statistics launched by the BIS in September 2023.