Financial Data Should Have a Passport – Even Cows Have One

Did you know that in Switzerland certain cows have a passport? It is reserved for suckler cows and requires compliance with guidelines that are significantly higher than the Swiss Animal Welfare Act. In addition to origin and descent, the passport also declares how the cows are kept and fed. Is it an expensive purebred animal? Did the animal have regular outdoor access? Was growth-promoting food omitted? These and other questions can be answered by a simple online query.

But what about the financial industry? Can a financial institution be 100% certain about where its data comes from? Does it really know what other data has been linked to the original source and who has edited it? Regardless of whether it is reference, corporate-action, or pricing data, banks seek assurance about the provenance and traceability of data. This is essential for them to confidently increase their growth and performance, minimize their risks, be compliant, and protect their reputation.

Poor Data Quality as Impediment

As they navigate through the increasing complexity of modern-day markets, financial institutions are at great risk of acting on outdated information. In this context, it doesn’t help that many companies are still far from knowing their way around their data. In a survey that we conducted with data management executives at 15 financial institutions in Europe and the USA, 60% of the respondents said that poor data quality – inconsistent data, for example – was a major impediment.

But there is no need for financial institutions to shoulder the burden of poor data. Perhaps the financial industry should take a leaf out of the farmers’ book. Why should financial institutions not make use of a “data passport” to trace the journey of data back to its origin? Key to this is making data completely digitized. It needs to arrive in a format customized to companies’ requirements to enable it to be integrated easily into their workflows.