Evaxyx calls on the FSA to insist on a Centralised Strategic Data Governance Fund for every financial institution
London, UK, 18th May 2009: Data management experts have been elevated to the strategic table of City financial institutions in the wake of the financial crisis, research commissioned by Evaxyx revealed today. As regulation threatens and management looks to plug the holes in their risk analysis and reporting systems, data management experts are being consulted earlier and their recommendations heeded.
However, cultural barriers to a single source of data and silos of information still persist with some managers looking to protect and maintain their proprietary systems and empires. Data managers fear that unless fundamental steps are taken to clean-up their systems, old habits and familiar problems will return when the City returns to profit.
The research was commissioned by data integration experts Evaxyx to understand the impact of the financial crisis on City institutions. Ten in depth interviews with strategic data managers were carried out independently by the Amber Group with representatives from companies including ABN AMRO, Invesco, Northern Trust, HSBC, HBOS and State Street Bank.
“A clear result is that data management experts are now taking their rightful place at the planning and decision making table,” said Simon Slocombe, Principal Consultant at Evaxyx. “In the past, they were often left out of early strategic and planning discussions around new processes and systems. And if they were at the table, their opinions and concerns were often dismissed by the business heads. However, there was a clear belief from those interviewed
that this attitude had changed as a result of the financial crisis. Data management experts are now being called in at the strategic planning stage around process and system changes, their advice is being heeded and they are playing an integral role in the programmes.”
The research also reveals that City institutions are beginning to put their house in order even ahead of the new wave of threatened legislation. Despite funding being tight, the research suggests that data managers are using there new found influence to gain funding and support for projects that will improve risk control but will also, importantly, lay the right foundations for a continuously, evolving data management strategy.
But Evaxyx’s Simon Slocombe said these steps did not go far enough. As a result of the research, Evaxyx is calling on the Financial Services Authority to insist all financial institutions establish a Central Strategic Data Governance Fund to help protect against future crisis. The fund would be used by each financial institution to clean-up its information systems, ensuring every organisation had one source of data and a single customer view.
“It is critical that the culture of the all powerful business heads and proprietary data systems are crushed once and for all,” said Evaxyx’s Simon Slocombe. “One practical step that financial institutions could take at a stroke is to shave 3% off of the annual budgets of each business line and place this funding into a Strategic Data Governance Fund within the organisation. This fund could then be used to continuously improve the systems and processes within the organisation around data integrity and governance, ensuring the City’s financial institutions become role models for data governance best practice in years to come.”
Evaxyx’s research executive summary entitled The City’s Data with Destiny can be downloaded at:
http://www.evaxyx.com/pdfs/EvaxyxResearchDocPages.pdf
