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7 Best Practices for Master Data Management in Banking: A Quick Overview and Free eBook 

Master Data Management in Banking: Current Challenges

With the growing number of interactions, observations, and regulations that banking enterprises are managing through various data acquisition points, it is critical to govern these core data elements in an agile and measurable environment for a single version of the truth.

Some of the greatest challenges include:

  1. Legacy systems hindering business performance.
  2. Duplication of effort and high cost in managing multiple systems with manual data entry.
  3. Increasing data volume leading to data governance issues.
  4. Managing and maintaining compliance with growing data privacy and security concerns.

This is where Master Data Management (MDM) comes in – tools that bring together information across different applications so that it can be managed, leveraged, and integrated across the enterprise, without the burden and expense of managing multiple, siloed systems.

It can be challenging to select a solution that specifically addresses MDM use cases for your bank that will fit the scope, context, and your unique business requirements.

Here are some best practices when planning your MDM use cases and implementation strategies for banking:

1. Define Context and Scope: Master Data Management in Banking

Although every bank’s MDM strategy is unique, the first place to start is with the anticipated context and scope of your project. Will you start small, and eventually increase your MDM use cases for banking? Will your MDM solution need to be global, or in one location? What range of data domains will you need to meet your functional requirements?

The right Master Data Management strategy should enable your bank’s efficiency, and connections with customers, third-party vendors, and business partners to improve your performance and business continuity. 

2. Establish Your MDM Project Leaders, Goals, and Outcomes 

In most banks, top-level executives, such as CEOs, CFOs, COOs, department heads, and various business managers help drive the overall vision for the data strategy. Data & Analytics, Enterprise Architecture, Applications, and PM teams can help build the applications that provide the most immediate value to the business. 

The right MDM strategy will improve your business outcomes, create operational efficiency and reduce costs. Be sure you consider projects and teams that serve your current business use cases, and support additional use cases for other projects down the road. 

3. Ensure MDM Data Quality Requirements 

Ensuring data quality is often a main reason for implementing a Master Data Management (MDM) solution since many banks struggle with legacy systems that don’t integrate.

The right MDM strategy enables banks to reduce risk and ensure data quality with complete control over all data, who has access, and under what conditions. With a single software platform for governance, master data, reference data, data quality, enrichment, and workflows, you can implement data quality best practices across the enterprise.

4. Address Compliance Head On

It is vital that your MDM solution meets current requirements regarding personal data and privacy, but is flexible enough for future needs. In order to prevent costly change management programs and embrace intelligent, informed growth and expansion, the right MDM strategy enables you to: Improve regulatory compliance with industry standards (FDIC, CEBA, FIRREA, IMLA, FATA (Title III), Sarbanes-Oxley Act, FACT, etc.), reduce legal and IP risk while proactively managing privacy, fraud detection, and enhanced security.

5. Research Deployment Options for Master Data Management in Banking 

Do you need a solution installed on-prem, in the cloud, or a hybrid between the two? 

Optimizing resources and costs is key. You don’t want to purchase a solution that you can’t support internally for the foreseeable future.  

The most effective MDM strategy will enable you to rapidly generate and deploy custom, data-rich apps as your bank’s needs grow, adapting to changing business or technical requirements without disruption. 

6. Set Clear Goals for Data Governance in MDM Use Cases in Banking

A single, consolidated 360-view of customers is key to delivering personalized experiences that ensure customer loyalty. Associating reference data with hierarchies and classifications also provides strong portfolio management, supports risk reporting and submissions, as well as the data for critical trading and investment activities. 

Make sure you establish clear goals for data governance to address current issues and look for a system that offers built-in flexibility as your data governance needs change –  for the lifetime of your business.

7. Increase Operational Efficiencies and Reduce TCO 

Remaining compliant while meeting competitive demands requires banks to drive innovation while improving internal operational efficiencies.

With an improved MDM strategy, banks can improve business process outcomes and overall agility to manage the ever-changing landscape of regulations, compliance, security, and risk; and reduce time to market for banking products while improving customer experiences and reducing TCO.

Today’s MDM tools and technologies are agile, adaptable, and easy to deploy. 

Start today and see measurable value in just a few weeks. 

Get Your Free Master Data Management in Banking eBook

Build a modern data management and integration strategy for finance and banking. Use the button below to get your free banking best practices guide for modern data management and integration strategy. 

Get Your Free Master Data Management Solution Selection eBook

Use the button below to discover a free, independent, interactive MDM buyer’s guide that will enable you to identify solutions suitable for your organization. This service is independent of any solution provider. It includes a report with the solutions that are the best fit for your context, scope, and requirements.

What Are Your Data Challenges? 

The Semarchy Unified Data Platform is your integrated data management platform. It’s the one-stop shop for business-centric data management, powerful data integration, and intelligent data governance. With Semarchy, any sized business can build trust in a single source of truth.

Want to learn more? Contact us today for a demo.