Reference Data Management Industry Benchmarking Survey 2014

Data managers and architects are drowning in regulation while trying to cut costs and maximize efficiency of their data management strategies. Internal customers and risk managers are requiring that data managers produce even more accurate and timely data. This means that data has been moved to be a top priority in their organisation. It is widely accepted that accurate data is what is going to prevent the next big financial blow up, crisis or a minor problem. In addition to that the regulators have come up with a lot more rules requiring banks to produce a great deal more accurate and timely data.

Current and upcoming regulatory demands, compounded by an unprecedented need to focus on squeezing value as well as generating profits, have forced financial institutions to scrutinize the state of their data management practices for quality control and risk management. Data managers have been charged with aligning data with business value, asking how data is part of operational activity, and how it relates to other products. Silos are coming down and infrastructure is changing for better efficiency and transparency. Data managers are now in the spotlight of financial institutions and are expected to promote data governance for firm-wide risk control.

FIMA, the Financial Information Management conference for reference data professionals, has compiled its own research on such issues, which can be found in the following pages. This study was conducted across May and June 2014 and received 62 responses from leading reference data professionals. It was designed to offer a potential industry benchmark, looking into areas including their current challenges through to their annual spend and what business drivers they are contributing towards.

The survey clearly demonstrates the rising importance being placed on data quality, which is not surprising given that improved data quality increases operational efficiency as data managers have to spend less time fixing the data. Quality and efficiency both assist with regulation, which increased in importance among respondents from 2013 to this year – not surprising given all the compulsory, and often, time consuming, work around MiFID and EMIR.

With this report, we further evaluate current needs, risks and opportunities for institutions and reference data professionals. Some of the key findings include:

v    Data quality is the top priority for reference data professionals with regards to their  data governance 

v    Nearly 50% of organisations now have a CDO

v    Majority of data managers handle data governance through a permanent centralised team

v    The main basis cited for changing the current data governance platform is ‘to adapt to  changing business needs

v    The amount of budget allocated on regulation in the coming year varies greatly across  organisations 

v    The top business driver, affecting respondent’s data management strategy, was  ‘improving data quality’

TO READ THE REPORT FOLLOW THE WEBSITE LINK ABOVE.