Is contextualisation compulsory?
We recommend that firms contextualise their data, but it is not compulsory. In DISP 1 Annex 1A we have recommended some contextualisation metrics. However, if firms feel that these metrics do not accurately reflect the scale of their relevant business, they can use alternative metrics, qualitative contextualisation, or not contextualise at all. If firms cannot find any contextualisation metrics that accurately reflect the scale of their relevant business, it is preferable they do not publish any contextualisation metrics, rather than publish misleading metrics. As we said in PS10/1, we expect firms to use the best data available and not to publish data that gives a misleading impression to readers.
