It’s no longer enough to gather information, banks must ensure that its use also complies with regulatory demands. This calls for a company-wide solution: enterprise data management. Dan Barnes explains.
Trust is the core strength that banks play upon in their business. The ability to source and interpret information is the method by which banks can establish trust in others, and commercial success. With recent regulatory pressures and the constant search for new revenue streams tightening up internal processes, the ability to share and track information is becoming increasingly important to financial services organisations.
Maturing technologies are allowing companies to gather information – on risk, customers and financial position – analyse it and distribute it to add value to the business. Many of the components that can be used (such as data warehousing, data analysis tools and business intelligence systems) will be familiar to you. As the level of abstraction between data and user is reduced by these implements, its potential uses multiply, with non-IT professionals seeking out innovative solutions and advantages. There is, in turn, a naturally increasing pressure on the technologies and processes used and this has led to the concept of enterprise data management (EDM). Significantly, this does not limit the term ‘data’ to structured information such as that found in a spreadsheet, but also unstructured data, such as text.
Analysis of data and the associated systems can reap rewards in both cost savings and top-line growth but, to reach that position, banks must establish an architecture that enables manipulation without losing the controls and audit trails required by the regulators. Without this development, the movement of information cannot be easily controlled and, post-Enron, lack of control can often mean non-compliance. For this reason, decisions in this area must be taken at a senior level and at an enterprise level, to prevent siloed projects.
In this supplement, The Banker and partner Golden Source, explore the potential of EDM, the drivers behind it and the ways in which organisations can begin to apply the concept to their existing and future structure.
Dan Barnes, Technology Editor
