Over the next few weeks we will be posting a series of blog pieces that take us on a journey through the entity data and data management landscape in the Financial Services industry, for both now and tomorrow.
Recently we attended the EDMworks Data Practitioner event in London titled, “Entity Data Management – Strategic Options and Approaches.” It was both an informative and thought provoking session in that it got us thinking about the different but interconnected dimensions of entity data management in the current financial services environment.

The event rationale stated, “In games of sport, consistent winners have a range of capabilities enabling them to overcome challenges they face. Capabilities include strategy, management, talent, research, training programmes, teamwork and collaboration. The winning managers are those who can join-up these individual capabilities to deliver consistent high performance teams. When looking at entity data which is fundamental to banks and investment firms, it also needs world class management and capabilities to master the challenges facing financial organisations.”

It is now a reality that entity data acquisition and its management is central to the efficient operation of capital markets and is fundamental for financial institutions’ risk management, customer service and regulatory compliance. As such, the increase in volume and complexity of the data and the advent of solutions including Customer Lifecycle Management platforms, managed services and entity data utilities, has now created a large and multifaceted ecosystem of both challenges and capabilities that need to be assessed, contextualised, understood and addressed. Firms that wish to put in place the capabilities that will, as the data practitioner event noted, “enable them to overcome the challenges they face,” need to undertake both significant current state analysis and strategic planning based on an informed assessment of a future, international, operating context.

This is a convoluted domain, more easily talked about than put into practice, but in the entity data context specifically this “self-analysis” breakdown could be structured as follows:

1. Do a broad and deep current state analysis of what, how, where and with whom the firm does business. In order to…
2. Identify what regulations apply to the conduct of the firm’s business and
3. Identify issues in the as-is landscape that are preventing the provision of cost effective, efficient and compliant client onboarding. Once the issues are identified there needs to be;
4. An assessment of solution options within the marketplace, including but not limited to; consulting services, data vendors, utility and compliance service vendors, data management and compliance software vendors, regulatory interpretation and emerging industry best practice models and data standards. Which in turn will inform…
5. The creation of strategic change requirements for the development and delivery of a Target Operating Model that should include organisational design, process and technology architectures with a focussed use of available vendor offerings.

In our next post we will look at how the outcomes from this analysis will inform and create a significant programme of strategic change needs.

Mark Bands, Head of Product Strategy & Regulatory Intelligence