CDOs Eye Offensive Approach to Data Management

March 24, 2021

Risk data aggregation is the top compliance concern for chief data officers (CDOs) within financial services firms, with 88% of these organizations devoting 40% or more of their total data practice budget to compliance functions, according to new research launched ahead of the leading data management event for financial services, FIMA.

The survey, conducted by WBR Insights among data and information technology executives within the financial services sector and sponsored by InterSystems, highlights that financial organizations are allocating significant portions of their budget to compliance initiatives, and that 54% of those surveyed further revealed that at least half of these functions are still performed manually within their organization.

Eighty seven percent of executives say they are implementing strategic data management initiatives in 2021 to further key business objectives, such as boosting profitability and improving customer outcomes. Many firms report that AI-driven analytical cloud services are at the forefront of these initiatives, with such solutions enabling financial services firms to sift through enormous volumes of data and gain a single view of accurate, consistent, and trusted real-time data.

The research also provides CDOs with insight into how their peers are leveraging new data management technologies and architectures, such as data fabrics, automated governance, machine learning, data lineage, and blockchain to enable them to meet their myriad business requirements.

“Financial services organizations are striving to gain a competitive edge, deliver more value to customers, reduce risk, and respond more quickly to the needs of the business,” said Ann Kuelzow, global head of financial services at InterSystems. “This requires leveraging data to its full effect – and the research shows that there is still more work required on defensive data management and automating compliance functions, as well as the more strategic “change the bank” types of initiatives that could have a significant impact on their operations.”

Other key findings include:

70% of CDOs say risk data aggregation is the primary regulatory concern within their IT departments, while 69% say “Know Your Customer” is their primary area of resource consumption.

69% of CDOs say their organizations have applied data lineage as a data governance technique, and 52% have applied crowdsourcing techniques.

63% of CDOs are pursuing an analytics-driven business strategy through an offensive approach to data management.

“Advances in modern data management technology are ensuring our financial services customers can continue to meet compliance and risk management initiatives, while also enabling them to implement strategic initiatives that generate new revenue streams, enhance customer experiences, and improve operational efficiencies,” added Kuelzow.