Can Data Governance Help Wall Street Firms Survive?
Posted in Business Impact / Benefits, Data Governance, Data Integration, Governance, Risk and Compliance by Peter Ku | |
Now that the $700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Rescue Program (TARP) has been approved by the government, firms on Wall Street are preparing themselves for even more oversight and scrutiny by lawmakers and taxpayers. Survivors from the market meltdown will be required to establish tighter controls, policies, standards, and processes for managing and delivering trusted information for decision making, auditing, and regulatory reporting than ever before.
While many companies have invested in data integration, data quality, data warehousing, and business intelligence technologies over the years, only a handful have adopted formal data governance practices to manage one of the most important assets in their company, their "Data". Take for example GE Asset Management. Chief Information Officer Anthony Sirabella, states:
"Data governance is one of our top 3 enterprise projects to generate more-consistent, accurate and timely data across the business; increase confidence in the data; and increase productivity for those supporting the data infrastructure. The data governance initiative involves a business focus on carefully defining data sources and definitions to meet user requirements, consistently applying that data across various analytic tools and reports, greater control over supplying systems and processes, and continuous monitoring to make sure that the data remains accurate and timely."
As firms journey into these unchartered waters, data governance is not only interesting but will soon effectively be a requirement for all to document their data management processes, policies, standards, and participants. In fact, companies may be required to measure the quality and value of their data just like any other asset on their books.
Why? Business transparency is no longer a luxury but a requirement. Companies can no longer let departments operate in silos or rogue individuals to perform fraudulent activities that can harm shareholders (remember Société Générale?). Managing risk is impossible without insight to cross business functions, access to accurate and timely information, and policies to enforce and protect the data and information used to run the business. This is the essence of data governance.
Therefore, can companies on Wall St. survive without a formal data governance program? I highly doubt it.
