They may differ in their opinions in how to go about effecting change (see last year’s FIMA standards panel for proof, see 
The challenge of getting a whole firm “into the same boat” and understanding the true benefits of a data management project requires strong leadership and governance from the outset, said Hans Lux, enterprise data architect at UBS Global Asset Management, to the delegation in attendance at TSAM 2010 earlier this week. The importance of data governance is far from a new concept, but Lux stressed that firms should use the audit trail to their advantage in the current environment where regulatory scrutiny is so intense.
Getting buy in from senior management and understanding from those at the grassroots level with regards to tackling data management challenges has become much easier as a result of the current industry focus on data, said Shannon Walker, IT architect at Deutsche Bank, to delegates to yesterday’s TSAM event in London. However, she warned that firms must involve those in the “middle”, namely end users from the business side, in data management projects in order to ensure they are on board with the changes and that the overall project is a success.
Simon Tweddle, director of risk management at Mizuho International, is a firm believer in assigning data ownership in order to effectively monitor data quality across a financial institution. Speaking at last week’s Thomson Reuters event in London, Tweddle explained that Mizuho has recently put the management of its global reference and market data back on the agenda in order to ensure its regional and local operations are all working from the same set of data.
The days of paying mere lip service to the goal of improving data quality and living with “spaghetti-like” data infrastructures are soon to be gone, said Deutsche Bank’s head of reference data services, Neil Fletcher, to those in attendance at last week’s Thomson Reuters event. His own firm is much more aware of the importance of data quality at a senior level and has therefore been compelled to embark on a long term project to ensure that all of its downstream systems get data from the same logical place on a global basis, he explained.
UK-based clearer LCH.Clearnet is mid-way through a significant project to revamp its internal data architecture, according to Martin Taylor, group chief information officer at the clearer. Taylor told attendees to last week’s Thomson Reuters organised data management roundtable that the clearer is six months into a project that will deliver a more standardised approach to data management via the move to a master data management (MDM) structure and the implementation of a new data warehouse.
A-Team Insight Exchange is a new event series for 2010, which will combine A-Team’s expertise in financial markets IT with thought leadership from world-class technology innovators and practical experience from financial market practitioners.
The data management community could potentially learn a lot about standardisation from the world of performance measurement, suggested Corné Reiners, head of both FSC performance measurement and data management at Robeco Asset Management, to delegates to TSAM in London this week. A lot of cooperation has been achieved within the area of performance measurement between asset management firms and this led to the development of Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS), which have achieved great traction in the market, he contended.
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