OTC Derivatives, Securities Linkages, Shake Up Instrument Data

A-Team Group, a publishing, research and consulting company specialising in financial information technology, was commissioned by Enterprise Data Management specialists, GoldenSource, to conduct a series of three studies focused on specific challenges faced by global reference data managers:

• The current state in managing instrument data in reference data master files
• The growing importance of linking counterparty data into the security master
• The industry status in connecting positions/holdings data with reference data

In this first of three studies, A-Team observed the shift towards centralizing data management to support the enterprise is well underway, now supported – if not initiated – by senior management. There was, however, a clear message across the industry that firms are still facing challenges. In the lead is the challenge of ensuring consistency and quality of instrument data consumed across the enterprise in the current environment…

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A-Team Group, a publishing, research and consulting company specializing in financial information technology, was commissioned by SunGard to conduct a study that would capture what is driving firm-wide reference data decisions globally. Specifically, the goals of the study were to assess global trends in data management across end-user groups, roles, responsibilities, including:

• Attitudes of executives responsible for data management
• Triggers, factors, and processes for purchasing decisions
• Driving priorities in improvements in data management.

A-Team Group held structured discussions with more than 34 senior individuals involved in reference data management in 32 firms located in North America and Europe…

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Fixed income instruments have always been difficult to price because of their diversity, volume and features, and not least because they continue to be predominantly traded over-the-counter and in many cases illiquid. And the increasing complexity of instruments, including the growing acceptance of derivatives, and tightening regulations are all putting further pressure on sources of fixed income pricing data.Given this landscape, how are financial institutions coping with the demands for pricing of fixed income securities? And given the illiquidity of many instruments and the dearth of contributed pricing sources in many areas, are evaluations gaining credibility as a pricing source?

We set out to find out:

• What are the institutions’ high level needs and preferences in fixed income data and what industry trends are driving these needs?
• What are their preferences for sources of data (brokers, vendors, selected exchanges, internal, others) and source types (contributed, evaluated, other) and why?
• Is evaluated pricing gaining credibility, generally and in Europe in particular?
• What is the perception of the current quality of third-party data available?
• What gaps in coverage exist in today’s data sources, and what are the priorities for filling them?
• What are the key factors of consideration in selecting data sources?
• And much more…

These are questions we were keen to ask our devoted Reference Data Review readers and other data managers when we embarked on our fixed income pricing data survey, commissioned by Reuters…

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A glimpse into the financial services outlook towards the value of outsourcing reference data

Is outsourcing for reference data management an idea whose time has come? This is a question we were keen to ask our faithful Reference Data Review readers and other data managers when we embarked on our data management outsourcing survey. We turned to the industry for the latest sentiment on value add of data outsourcing and conducted one-on-one interviews with sell-side, buy-side and custodian firms in the U.K., Mainland Europe and the U.S. to understand their current reference data strategies.

Are these data managers willing to consider it for their data management processes? If so, what’s motivating them now? Are there consistent themes across the industry? What data types and functions would they consider outsourcing, and why would they not consider other data types or functions? What do they think are the benefits of outsourcing, and what are the barriers that could be holding them back from accepting managed reference data services? How does the view differ among sell-side, buy-side and custodian firms?

The survey was commissioned by enterprise data management provider SunGard Data Management Solutions, and designed and conducted by A-Team, a leading research and analysis company focusing on the use of information technology in financial markets…

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Want to know what 100 of the most influential reference data and IT managers say are the key drivers for securing investment into reference data and its management? Or how different financial institutions are approaching the challenge of effectively managing data across the enterprise and what progress they’ve made over the past two years? Or what they really think of issues like data quality, budgets, ROI, and more? So did we. Which is why we embarked on an in-depth and wide-ranging survey covering over 60 questions in order to get inside the mind of the thought leaders and hands-on managers in the industry. Now you can access our full findings in our complimentary report by registering for your free download.

The survey was commissioned by global information company Reuters, and designed and conducted by A-Team, a leading research and analysis company focusing on the use of information technology in financial markets.

The findings are contained in a report, Reference Data Now: Business Drivers & Approaches to Data Management, which is probably the industry’s most authoritative discussion on the current state of the reference data business for the past few years…

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