Upon googling, I got links mentioning about 'vanilla reporting' and 'vanilla interest rate swap'

Since your field is bus/finance, my wild guess is 'vanilla interest rate swap'

http://www.riskworx.com/pdfs/instruments/vintrateswaps.pdf

vanilla means 標準in Japanese, so I guess "maintain the standard" would maybe fit here.

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=vanilla&stype=0&d...

This is what I could find. I'm not sure if it applies to you, but it's on the top of economics. :-)

I see that it's sometimes just called "vanilla." Anyway, it's a much simpler, easy-to-understand type of mortgage for inexperienced borrowers, etc. according to the below website: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/business/economy/05view.ht...

Here's what I got from another website:
- Under the new system, it would be much easier for borrowers to compare vanilla mortgages offered by different lenders, because the terms/conditions would presumably be identical. The paperwork burden would be lower, and hidden fees and prepayment penalties would be banned. Sounds pretty good to me! No wonder mortgage industry lobbyists are fighting it tooth-and-nail…

http://news.mortgagecalculator.org/vanilla-mortgages-gain-ap...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29233580


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Note added at 7 hrs (2009-11-05 13:07:55 GMT)
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It's also a plain and simple type of mortgage and that's why it's called vanilla: the plainest ice cream.