75% of Banks Have Data Management Projects Underway, Survey Says

More than 75 percent of global financial firms have data management programs underway, according to a survey conducted by the Enterprise Data Management Council and Headstrong, an IT consulting company for financial services. More than half the banks surveyed (52 percent) say they're moving towards a global centralized EDM structure. Regulatory compliance and risk management are the top drivers for EDM in almost half of the firms.

The survey polled a representative sample of more than 60 financial institutions. According to the results, data management has emerged as one of the top priorities for most financial institutions, driven by a combination of regulatory requirements, systemic risk concerns and business demand for timely and trusted data. Financial institutions are in the formative stages of implementing their EDM strategies, but have not yet achieved their long-term objectives on either data centralization or integration into downstream applications.

The financial industry is making significant investment in data management and budgets are rising across the industry. "The challenge is less about obtaining funding for EDM initiatives and more about using the money wisely for implementation," said Predrag Dizdarevic, co-author of the report and managing partner, element22. "Spending for integration-related activities is growing rapidly and now accounts for a rising portion of total EDM budgets."

The demand for industry-wide standardization was cited as a high priority among most data management professionals across the industry. The overall level of standardization is low, but a majority of firms are in the process of addressing this gap. "Firms recognize the essential nature of data content standards for internal alignment and data comparability," said Michael Atkin, managing director, EDM Council. "Without exception, firms with experience in EDM integration understand the value of both architectural and semantic standards and want them implemented as soon as possible."