3 Keys to Improving Data Quality

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Linking Customer Records

Banks' data is often spread out among multiple databases and parts of their organizations. To start linking customer records across those different departments, banks should standardize customer contact information throughout the organization. If contact information is standardized it can be used to locate duplicate records across different databases, the white paper argues. And database software should be used to identify duplicate records, since doing so manually can be prone to human error.

It's also important for banks to create their own definition of an ideal single customer record or profile and what identification criteria they'd like to use. Sometimes it might be best to have a record for each individual customer, while in other cases it could be better to group one household under a single record, Experian's paper points out.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio

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