Groundhog Day

I'm as imaginative as the next editor, but I cannot shake the feeling that I have been writing essentially the same editorial over and over the past few months - exhorting bank executives to get their acts together when it comes to managing critical information securely and responsibly. Yes, at many banks the top executives are leading the way in identifying information security and compliance as paramount goals. They are doing so not only because of the risks of noncompliance (legal liability and reputational fallout, for starters) but also because it's the right thing to do.

Yet there continues to be a number of organizations - including prominent household-name institutions, not obscure companies - that, to be blunt, are getting caught unprepared, skirting the rules and/or uninformed about data management and protection requirements. The inevitable conclusion is that somehow management thought the company would get away with something - including getting away without making essential investments in technology as well as fundamental changes in internal business practices and procedures.

At press time, the latest shocker (shocking in that this could still happen) was courtesy of Morgan Stanley, which earlier this month was hit with a $604.3 million award on claims by financier Ron Perelman that the investment bank helped defraud him in a 1998 business transaction. Factoring into the judgment was the presiding judge's anger about Morgan Stanley's inability to turn over documents - not only paper files but also e-mails and other electronic records. That's right - inability, primarily technical. Why do I feel I've heard that before?

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BS&T News: On a more positive note, BS&T welcomes Maria Bruno-Britz, a long-time editorial presence in banking technology media, to the team as Senior Editor. And belated congratulations to Ivan Schneider, who was promoted to Executive Editor and also has assumed an expanded role in developing online content not only for BS&T and our Web site, www.banktech.com, but also for our sibling publications Insurance & Technology and Wall Street & Technology. I hope many of you will have an opportunity to work with both of these talented professionals.

Katherine Burger, Editorial Director [email protected]

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio