Getting a Grip on Fragmented Risk Data – A Holistic Approach to Risk Information

This white paper is based on primary research by A-Team interviewing senior IT and Data Strategy managers at tier 1 and tier 2 banks.

Risk management has been accepted as the new imperative for financial institutions of all types and sizes. But for Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks and brokerages, the complexity of their organisations is presenting risk professionals with a thorny data management challenge: How to gather, normalise and synchronise information from a broad array of internal and external sources that provide the data required to drive their risk analytics and management systems?

This complexity derives from the range of business activities, geographical operations and corporate entities that make up today’s financial markets institution. Most large institutions are at least multi-national if not truly global, and this entails operating under different sets of market and regulatory rules, and handling different sets of asset classes.

Additional complexity comes from the fact that many firms have expanded as the result of mergers and acquisitions activity. Acquired companies may use different business models and systems from the acquiring parent. Integration is often achieved through mapping and other relatively superficial methods. The result is a set of business silos, delineated via a range of criteria that itself may not be consistent across the enterprise.