In today’s environment, the regulatory pressures of complying with the data-related directives of Basel III, Dodd Frank and MiFID II, which focus on data quality, accuracy, governance and accessibility, are monumental. Firms are now moving beyond half-hearted attempts to manage their data. They are espousing full-scale data management programmes embedded in the ecosystem of the firm, providing meaning, context and quality to the data.

A firm’s data is its most important asset and the lifeblood of its enterprise systems. A lack of access to the right data at the right time can put firms at risk on two fronts: regulatory reporting and sound business. While regulatory drivers, like BCBS 239, may be behind this current push to ‘just do it’, firms should also be thinking about taking advantage of the opportunities provided by these programmes through access to quality data. They allow firms to:

• Harness the power of data and drive revenue generating ideas based on client or industry trading patterns;
• Decrease costs through data harmonisation and a reduction in the numbers of reconciliation iterations;
• Increase control in reporting and financial modelling with quality data upon which to base sound business decisions and identify risks.

Regulators around the globe are focusing increasingly on the quality, timeliness and accuracy of data generated by the firms they regulate. Having a sound data management strategy, backed up by periodic risk assessments, is a clear and transparent way to evidence a firm’s capabilities to the regulator. The performance of annual (or more frequent) risk assessments is a key component of any data management strategy; it is one of the best metrics for senior management and the governance team to gauge the effectiveness of the programme, evidencing progress from the base case towards the desired state, as articulated by the objectives of the programme.

Data is the lifeblood of every organisation. A strong data management programme ensures the data has meaning throughout the data lifecycle, with no degradation in quality, providing the basis for sound business decisions and transparency in reporting. Data by nature is only as good as the processes, controls and people who surround it. Like any eco-system, data management programmes need to continuously evolve or they will wither and die. They need to be nurtured, monitored, improved, and expanded or contracted to meet the constantly changing needs of the business.

Hatstand’s white paper discusses some of the key attributes of a data management programme for financial services firms, and how full scale data management programmes need to be adopted and embedded into the ecosystem of a firm, providing meaning, context and quality to data.

To download a full copy of Hatstand’s white paper, please click on the below link:

May the Data be with You