When it comes to data – do you have analysis paralysis?
Supervisors globally continue to enhance their use of technology aimed at proactively identifying market instability and preventing market disruption as well as detecting financial crime and market abuse. Corporate Audit departments are doing the same. While identifying, cataloging, sourcing, and understanding relevant data can overwhelm the largest and most well-capitalized institutions, compliance and risk organizations cannot afford to watch from the sidelines.
How can you get into the data game and avoid analysis paralysis? Ask yourself and your leadership team these questions:
Do we understand the organization’s data governance framework, policies, and procedures?
Do we adhere to them? Is our own house in order?
Do we have a reliable inventory of reports routinely issued to supervisors? Do we know which are of the highest importance?
Do we understand the data lineage for our highest-risk reports? Do we have mature data governance processes for them?
Do we understand which data elements are key to successfully executing monitoring and testing programs and where the golden sources reside? E.G., credit rating, customer rating, interest rate, product type, or contracting entity.
If you have answered no to any, or all, of these questions, let that serve as a strategic roadmap to improve your compliance and risk organization’s monitoring and oversight capabilities. Compliance and risk professionals are not data stewards by nature, so start small and educate your teams on what data and information governance is and why it matters.
Remember, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.